---
alias:
- Little Rock
category: City
created: 2026-09-21
location: Arkansas, United States
summary: Capital of Arkansas and seat of Stephens Inc., Worthen Bank, Systematics,
  and the Rose Law Firm, where BCCI's emissary met Jackson Stephens and Bert Lance
  in 1977 and the Riady family entered American banking.
tags:
- Place
- LittleRock
- Arkansas
- StephensInc
- WorthenBank
- RoseLawFirm
- BCCI
- LippoGroup
updated: 2026-09-21
---

Little Rock is the capital of [Arkansas](/places/arkansas/).

### The Stephens Interests

[Witt Stephens](/people/witt-stephens/) began trading municipal bonds in the city in 1932 and founded the firm that became [Stephens Inc.](/organizations/stephens-inc/) the next year. His brother [Jackson Stephens](/people/jackson-stephens/) ran it from 1957. The bank data processor [Systematics](/organizations/systematics/), the telephone company ALLTEL, and the [Worthen Banking Corporation](/organizations/worthen-bank/) had their headquarters there, as does the [Rose Law Firm](/organizations/rose-law-firm/), which traces its origin to 1820.[^1]

On November 9, 1977, Jackson Stephens, his officer [Curt Bradbury](/people/curt-bradbury/), and [Bert Lance](/people/bert-lance/) met Abdus Sami of the [Bank of Credit and Commerce International](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/) in Little Rock. Within two months four of that bank's clients had bought into [Financial General Bankshares](/organizations/financial-general-bankshares/) of Washington through an account at Stephens Inc.[^2]

### The Riadys

Mochtar Riady of Indonesia met the Stephens brothers in 1976, and the two families took control of Worthen together in 1983. [James Riady](/people/james-riady/), who had been an intern at Stephens Inc., moved to the city to run the bank's international division, with [John Huang](/people/john-huang/) as his Far East manager from February 1985. "One of them even lived in Little Rock for a few years," two reporters wrote of the Riadys in 1992. Huang, Riady, and the Little Rock lawyer Mark Grobmyer called on President [Bill Clinton](/people/bill-clinton/) at the White House on June 23, 1994.[^2][^3]

### 1992 and After

In 1992 Worthen, under Bradbury, gave the Clinton campaign a line of credit of 3.5 million dollars, and Bradbury and [Mack McLarty](/people/mack-mclarty/) of Arkla organized Little Rock dinners that raised two million. After the election the Rose partners Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vince Foster, and [Webster Hubbell](/people/webster-hubbell/) went to Washington. The firm's remaining members "found irregularities in Hubbell's billings for 1989-92," and on December 6, 1994, he pleaded guilty in the federal court at Little Rock.[^4][^5]

[^1]: "Witt Stephens (1907-1991)," "Stephens Inc.," and "Rose Law Firm," *Encyclopedia of Arkansas.*
[^2]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Houghton Mifflin, 1992; Financial General Bankshares, Inc. v. Metzger, 523 F. Supp. 744 (D.D.C. 1981).
[^3]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2.
[^4]: "Meet The Family That Bankrolled Clinton," *The Seattle Times,* January 31, 1993.
[^5]: Office of the Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C.