Joseph E. Vaez

Joseph E. Vaez was an officer in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).¹

Role in BCCI Investigation

In February 1978, Vaez submitted a report on the 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