Bert Lance

T. Bertram (Bert) Lance was President Jimmy Carter's budget director and former chairman of National Bank of Georgia.¹

Political and Banking Career

Lance gained prominence as Jimmy Carter's budget director but later resigned due to a congressional investigation into financial improprieties.² He became chief executive of the National Bank of Georgia, which was the largest lender to Jimmy Carter's peanut warehouse.³ He borrowed $2.6 million to finance his purchase of stock in the bank.⁴

Involvement with BCCI

Eugene Holley introduced Lance to Agha Hasan Abedi in October 1977.⁵ Abedi helped Lance finalize the acquisition of National Bank of Georgia from Lance in January 1978, and on the same day, Abedi paid off Lance's $3.5 million bank loan.⁶ Lance's financial difficulties were leveraged by Abedi to facilitate BCCI's entry into the U.S. market.⁷

Lance played a key role in the acquisition of Financial General Bankshares, which later became First American Bank.⁸ He recruited his friend and attorney Clark Clifford to represent Abedi, BCCI, and the front men in the Financial General suit.⁹ BCCI also hired Lance as a consultant at a salary of $100,000.¹⁰

Stephens, Sami and Pharaon

In 1976 Mochtar Riady of the Lippo Group met Jackson and Witt Stephens while "looking into buying Bert Lance's share of the National Bank of Georgia"; that deal fell through.¹¹ According to the Federal Reserve's findings of 1991, it was at Lance's suggestion that the BCCI officer Abdus Sami met Jackson Stephens in November 1977 to discuss the purchase of Lance's interest in the bank by a BCCI client, and Stephens then suggested Financial General as an investment. Lance completed the sale of his stock to Ghaith R. Pharaon on January 4, 1978, the day he repaid a Chicago loan and a 443,000 dollar loan to a Tennessee bank; he told the subcommittee he never met Pharaon until the night of the closing.¹²¹³

Sami's memo to Abedi of January 30, 1978, referred to "our friend" in the Financial General negotiations; Lance acknowledged to the subcommittee that the reference was to him, but testified that "the acquisition of shares were basically handled by Mr. Sami, and he was the man who was responsible. I was not involved in that." He testified that in 1978, at Abedi's suggestion, he met Kamal Adham and Sheikh Zayed, the latter in Lahore in "February or March, 1978," and the Washington Post reported that he had recently been in Karachi in connection with his dealings with Abedi; he made the trip on an official diplomatic passport although he no longer worked for the government.¹³ Of Abedi's relationship with Zayed he told the subcommittee that Abedi had "been kind and attentive to Sheikh Zayed when he was still wandering around in the desert and he had all his assets in his tent somewhere."¹⁴

According to the Kerry-Brown Senate Report, a federal judge on April 27, 1978, "permanently enjoined Lance and ten other defendants" from violating the securities laws in connection with the Financial General takeover.¹²