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Robert Altman

Robert Altman was a Washington attorney and partner to Clark Clifford who served as president of First American Bankshares and was indicted by Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau in July 1992 on charges of bribery and fraud related to BCCI's secret ownership of the bank; he was acquitted by a Manhattan jury in September 1993.

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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, Altman was alleged to have 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

Sources

  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. 8. ↩
  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. 194. ↩
  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. 189. ↩
  4. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 189. ↩
  5. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 189. ↩
  6. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 218. ↩
  7. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 218. ↩
  8. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 30. ↩
  9. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 215. ↩
  10. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 215. ↩
  11. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 14. ↩

Connected to

Organization
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a Pakistani-founded offshore bank that operated across 78 countries before its 1991 collapse exposed a decade-long conspiracy involving money laundering for drug cartels and intelligence agencies, illegal acquisition of U.S. banks, bribery, fraud, and arms trafficking, in what regulators called the largest bank fraud in history.
11 shared pages
viaWilliam Ryback · Kamal Adham · Sani Ahmed · Clark Clifford · Amjad Awan
Person
Clark Clifford
Clark Clifford (1906-1997) was a Washington attorney who served as Special Counsel to President Truman, co-authored the National Security Act of 1947, served as Secretary of Defense under Lyndon Johnson, and became the central American figure in the BCCI scandal after he and his partner Robert Altman personally vouched to banking regulators that BCCI would not secretly own First American Bank -- a representation that proved false.
10 shared pages
viaWilliam Ryback · Kamal Adham · Clark Clifford · Amjad Awan · John Kerry

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