Robert Altman

Robert Altman was a prominent American lawyer and banker, known for his close association with Clark Clifford and his involvement in the BCCI scandal. He served as the former president of First American Bank and was Clifford's law partner and protégé. Altman, along with Clifford, acted as BCCI's chief American counsel from 1978 to 1990.¹

Altman was a key figure in BCCI's secret acquisition of American banks, including Financial General Bankshares and the National Bank of Georgia. He and Clifford were instrumental in navigating regulatory hurdles and concealing BCCI's true ownership through a network of nominees.² Their involvement in these transactions led to accusations of bribery and fraud.

Early Career and Relationship with Clifford

Altman was considered a "whiz kid" at Clifford & Warnke, known for his ambition and indefatigable work ethic. By 1977, at the age of thirty, Clifford brought him in to assist Bert Lance in his defense against Congress and assigned him to BCCI, one of the firm's most important new clients.³ Their professional relationship evolved into a formidable legal team, with Clifford playing the role of the elder statesman and Altman handling the more aggressive aspects.⁴

Altman's personal life was marked by a desire for material possessions, contrasting with Clifford's more ascetic lifestyle. He married actress and former Miss USA Lynda Carter in 1984, a wedding that commingled Hollywood glamour and Washington elites. Agha Hasan Abedi himself offered Altman's new wife a choice of cars as a wedding present.⁵

Involvement in BCCI Scandal

Altman and Clifford orchestrated the $20-million defense of BCCI in Tampa against money-laundering charges.⁶ When Senator John Kerry's subcommittee began investigating BCCI, the journalists Jonathan Beaty and S. C. Gwynne wrote, Altman advised Amjad Awan, a BCCI banker, to flee the country.⁷ He and Clifford were accused of lying to U.S. banking regulators about BCCI's secret ownership of First American.⁸

In February 1988, Altman and Clifford sold a large portion of their stock in First American to a BCCI front man, making significant profits.⁹ This sale occurred around the time of Jose Blandon's testimony linking BCCI to Manuel Noriega's drug money and Abedi's heart attack, which ended his direct control of the bank.¹⁰

Altman was indicted by a New York grand jury in July 1992, along with Clark Clifford, on charges related to bribery and fraud for their role in helping BCCI influence First American Bank's affairs.¹¹

The Federal Reserve Application

On June 2, 1981, Altman asked the Federal Reserve, on behalf of the Middle Eastern investors and Credit and Commerce American Holdings (CCAH), to seal portions of the transcript of its April 23, 1981 hearing; the request was granted, "preventing anyone outside the Federal Reserve from learning the identities of several of the shareholders." At the hearing he told the Federal Reserve's counsel that it was "not correct" that Kamal Adham and Faisal Saud al-Fulaij had first been interested in the investment by BCCI, and that Adham had learned of it from "a friend who worked in the Saudi Arabian Embassy, Mr Yassin." In a letter to the Federal Reserve of May 9, 1978, he had given a different account, in which Jackson Stephens first proposed Financial General to a BCCI representative during the sale of the National Bank of Georgia in November 1977.¹²

National Bank of Georgia

On May 8, 1986, Altman wrote to Swaleh Naqvi enclosing a valuation of the National Bank of Georgia by First American's treasurer, A. Vincent Scoffone, and hoping for a price of 160 to 175 million dollars, as "we are nearing the point at which this purchase is too expensive."¹³ He later told journalists that the purchase "was clearly an arms-length business deal," and told the Senate that "First American, not BCCI, initiated the NBG transaction." Altman denied to the Senate subcommittee that he had attended a meeting in Miami with Abedi, Naqvi and Clifford at which the merger was arranged; Roy P. M. Carlson, the bank's former president, told the subcommittee's staff that he, Clifford and Altman had met at the Grand Bay Hotel in Miami in February 1986 to discuss the price.¹³¹⁴ According to BCCI's former New York manager, Abdur Sakhia, Altman was present when Sakhia and Naqvi discussed using Faisal al-Fulaij as the nominee for a planned BCCI purchase of the Eagle Bank in Florida.¹³

Stock and Testimony

Hammoud granted Altman a power of attorney allowing him to conduct any transaction in CCAH shares on Hammoud's behalf; Altman testified that he had never met Hammoud. The Federal Reserve found that "On February 12, 1991, in sworn testimony to the Board of Governors, Altman falsely stated that he did not know how the purchase price of $6800 per share was fixed, and that he did not discuss the matter with Imam."¹³ According to the House Banking Committee, BCCI paid some 45 million dollars in legal fees disbursed by Altman; he told the Senate that the amount was "approximately $20 million."¹³

Trial and Settlement

On July 29, 1992, Altman was indicted by a New York State grand jury and a federal grand jury in Washington; the state charges carried a maximum of 32 years in prison and about 80 million dollars in fines.¹⁵ His trial in the Manhattan Supreme Court before Justice John Bradley began in March 1993, and on August 14, 1993, the jury acquitted him of the remaining counts, the others having been dismissed during the trial.¹⁶¹⁷ Under a Federal Reserve consent order dated effective February 1998 he relinquished 895 CCAH shares and agreed not to serve as an officer or director of a bank holding company or insured depository institution without the Board's consent, a restriction that did not apply to work "solely in the capacity of an attorney"; the order recorded that he had not served in such a post since 1991.¹⁸