--- alias: - John G. Heimann born: 1929-04-01 category: BCCI Scandal created: 2026-09-23 died: 2024-01-31 location: New York City relations: - end: 1981-05-15 fn: 1 role: 24th Comptroller of the Currency start: 1977-07-21 type: head_of with: '[[Office of the Comptroller of the Currency]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: Comptroller of the Currency start: 1977 type: appointed with: '[[Jimmy Carter]]' - fn: 3 role: New York Banking Superintendent; held nominee applications for New York banks type: investigated with: '[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]' - fn: 4 role: Comptroller's review of Lance's banking practices start: 1977 type: investigated with: '[[Bert Lance]]' - fn: 3 role: OCC inquiry whether Pharaon fronted for BCCI at the National Bank of Georgia start: 1978 type: investigated with: '[[Ghaith R. Pharaon]]' - fn: 2 role: founding partner, E.M. Warburg Pincus & Co. start: 1967 type: employed_by with: '[[Warburg Pincus]]' - end: 1999 fn: 2 role: vice chairman of capital markets type: employed_by with: '[[Merrill Lynch]]' summary: New York banking superintendent who twice blocked BCCI's attempts to buy a New York bank through nominees, then as Comptroller of the Currency approved Ghaith Pharaon's 1978 purchase of the National Bank of Georgia. tags: - Person - BCCI - BankRegulator - Comptroller updated: 2026-09-23 --- John G. Heimann was an American investment banker and bank regulator who served as Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York and then, from July 21, 1977, to May 15, 1981, as the 24th Comptroller of the Currency, appointed by President [Jimmy Carter](/people/jimmy-carter/).[^1][^2] In both posts he dealt with the attempts of the [Bank of Credit and Commerce International](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/) (BCCI) to enter the [United States](/places/united-states/).[^3] ### Early Life and Career Heimann was born in [New York City](/places/new-york-city/) on April 1, 1929, to Sydney and Dorothy Baright Heimann. His mother died in 1934 and his father, a lawyer, ten years later, after which he and his younger brother Richard were made wards of the court and sent to the New York Military Academy. He received a BA in economics from Syracuse University in 1950, was drafted into the Army during the [Korean War](/events/korean-war/), and began his career at Smith Barney, where he created the firm's pension fund business. In 1967 Lionel Pincus asked him to join his new firm, E.M. Warburg Pincus & Co., as a founding partner.[^2] In 1975, during New York City's fiscal crisis, he became Superintendent of Banks for New York State in the administration of Governor Hugh Carey, who later made him Commissioner of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal.[^2] As Comptroller he was the first chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council and acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.[^1] ### BCCI in New York BCCI's first attempt to acquire an American bank was a bid for the [Chelsea National Bank](/organizations/chelsea-national-bank/) in New York through a member of the [Gokal](/people/gokal-brothers/) family as nominee. Heimann testified to the Senate subcommittee of Senator [John Kerry](/people/john-kerry/): "My first supervisory contact with BCCI occurred when I was New York Banking Superintendent. New York law requires the Superintended to approve the change of control of a New York chartered bank. . . A young Pakistani national was the proposed purchaser. His uncertified financial statement showed total assets of $4.5 million, of which $3 million was in the form of a loan from his sister. His reported annual income for the prior year was, as I recall, approximately $34,000."[^3] He found that BCCI had no central regulator and divided its operations between two auditors, so that it had no consolidated financial report, and put a hold on the application. BCCI then applied through a second nominee for a second New York bank, with the same result. [Agha Hasan Abedi](/people/agha-hasan-abedi/) then met Heimann directly. Heimann testified: "In each instance, Mr. Abedi attempted to convince us of the secure nature and correct operations of BCCI, its financial strength, etc. On each of these occasions, I expressed my concern that BCCI did not have a primary regulator, and that, until it did, my office was reluctant to permit entry into the US." The Senate report concluded: "New York, the most important U.S. banking market for BCCI, would be closed to BCCI so long as Heimann was its chief regulator."[^3] Before the subcommittee he stated: "Early on in my government service, I learned one very important and fundamental lesson; namely, that those so inclined to manipulate banks for their own benefit find it easiest to do so if they operate between different supervisory regimes."[^4] ### Bert Lance and the National Bank of Georgia As Comptroller, Heimann was, in the Senate report's words, "the principal person in the Carter Administration who determined that Bert Lance's banking practices were serious enough to warrant criminal investigation, and to require that Lance not remain as director of the Office of Management and Budget."[^4] His family's notice described the investigation of [Bert Lance](/people/bert-lance/) as his first challenge as Comptroller.[^2] In January 1978 Lance sold his shares in the [National Bank of Georgia](/organizations/national-bank-of-georgia/) to [Ghaith R. Pharaon](/people/ghaith-r-pharaon/). In a memorandum to his files dated January 4, 1978, Heimann recorded that the bank's president, Guyton, "noted he was somewhat disturbed about the role played by the Pakistanis in this transaction," and that "He believes that Lance is presently on the BCCI payroll working with Addabi [sic] and Sami. As a matter of fact, Lance went to London last week and will be back today. The purpose of that trip, presumably, was to discuss further expansion of BCCI in the U.S." Within two weeks the OCC learned that Lance was receiving from BCCI "a tremendous salary," an airplane, office space and secretarial help.[^3][^4] When BCCI's attempt, with Lance, to take over [Financial General Bankshares](/organizations/financial-general-bankshares/) became public, Heimann directed the OCC's enforcement staff to determine whether Pharaon, like Gokal before him, was a front for BCCI. Robert B. Serino, director of enforcement and compliance, met Pharaon on March 30, 1978, and wrote to Heimann on April 3: "My conclusions from meeting with Pharaon are that he tells a convincing story; however, it appears that he is 'beholden' to or at least influenced by Abedi. I believe he could, in fact, be Abedi's alter ego in the United States." The Senate report found: "There is no evidence in OCC files to suggest that OCC sought to investigate further its suspicions about Pharaon acting as a front man for BCCI in the purchase of National Bank of Georgia."[^3] The report described Heimann's position: "Heimann was faced with a difficult choice. Pharaon had agreed that Lance would have no further involvement with National Bank of Georgia if his application to buy it were approved." The OCC was preparing a fraud suit against Lance, and the bank had inadequate capital. "The OCC gave Pharaon permission to move forward and he concluded his tender offer to purchase a 60 percent interest in NBG on May 30, 1978." In the same period an OCC examiner in London, [Joseph E. Vaez](/people/joseph-e-vaez/), had found that BCCI used nominees in purchases of other banks; the report found that this information did not reach the examiners dealing with the Georgia bank, and that in 1981, when the [Federal Reserve](/organizations/federal-reserve-board/) was considering the purchase of Financial General Bankshares, the OCC failed, inadvertently, to pass on what it knew of BCCI's possible use of nominees.[^4] ### Later Career Heimann returned to Wall Street in 1981 as deputy chairman of Warburg, Paribas, Becker, and through its acquisition moved to Merrill Lynch, where he was vice chairman of capital markets, chairman of the executive committee of Merrill Lynch Europe and Middle East, and chairman of its global financial institutions group. After leaving Merrill Lynch in 1999 he became founding chairman of the Financial Stability Institute at the Bank for International Settlements. He was a member of the Group of Thirty and chaired the 2020 Andean Commission of the Council on Foreign Relations.[^2] He died at his home in Manhattan in January 2024, at 94.[^2] [^1]: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. "John G. Heimann, 24th Comptroller of the Currency." https://www.occ.gov/about/who-we-are/history/previous-comptrollers/bio-24-john-heimann.html [^2]: "John G. Heimann" (paid death notice). *The New York Times,* February 4, 2024, via Legacy.com. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/john-heimann-obituary?id=54285685 (archived: http://web.archive.org/web/20260224062907/https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/john-heimann-obituary?id=54285685). The notice states that he died "on Wednesday," which fell on January 31, 2024. [^3]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry and FGB and NBG Takeovers" (citing Heimann's testimony, S. Hrg. 102-379, pp. 76-77, and OCC memoranda of January 4 and April 3, 1978). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm [^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm