Joseph E. Vaez was an officer in the [[Office of the Comptroller of the Currency|Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)]].[^1] ### Role in BCCI Investigation In February 1978, Vaez submitted a report on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] that characterized it as a bank dangerously out of control.[^1] He was sent with a team of auditors to examine the books of [[Bank of America]], which held 30 percent of BCCI's shares.[^2] His memo provided a detailed summary of BCCI's operations, noting its explosive growth, lack of lending limits, and undocumented loans.[^2] Vaez's report concluded that BCCI's practices were glaringly obvious as far back as 1978. The report also highlighted that money was disappearing into "unsecured borrowings" in [[ICIC]] in the [[Cayman Islands]], and that bad or questionable loans constituted three and a half times BCCI's capital.[^3] Despite the significance of his report, the OCC claimed to have "lost" the memo. When Vaez later agreed to provide a copy from his own files, the OCC refused to let investigators have it, only releasing it after a congressional subpoena.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 381-382 [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 137.