N.Y. Judge Drops Four of Eight Charges Against Key BCCI Figure

A state judge dealt a blow to the federal government’s BCCI bribery-and-fraud case Thursday, dismissing four of the eight charges against Washington attorney Robert A. Altman.

Altman and law partner Clark M. Clifford, a longtime Washington powerbroker and former defense secretary, were indicted last year by a New York state grand jury for allegedly taking bribes that enabled the Bank of Credit & Commerce International to hide its illegal ownership of U.S. banks.

Altman and Clifford were legal advisers to BCCI and officers of First American Bankshares Inc., a Washington-based bank holding company that BCCI acquired illegally in 1982.

Despite almost four months of testimony and 45 witnesses in the case, New York state Supreme Judge John Bradley found that federal prosecutors had not been able to support four of the counts against Altman. The judge dismissed charges accusing him of taking bribes from BCCI officials and falsifying business records.

Altman and Clifford were accused of taking bribes in the form of sham loans and the purchase of stock in Credit & Commerce American Holding, a holding company for First American.

Altman, 46, still faces four other counts, including a key allegation that he misled regulators and depositors about BCCI’s true ownership of First American.

The defense rested its portion of the case Thursday.