Newsclipping summary:
FEAR-List Bulletin posted by Bob Bauman, 9/15/95
The Federal Reserve has asked a U.S. District judge in New York to allow them to keep assets valued at $37 million belonging to Gaith Pharon, a wealthy Saudi financier implicated in the BCCI banking scandal. The hearing, expected to last four months, is part of the government effort to prosecute those considered responsible for the collapse in 1991 of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International, which allegedly engaged in crimes from money laundering to secret bank ownership.
Fed lawyers contend that Mr. Pharon helped BCCI "illegally acquire" the former Independence Bank of Encino, California which failed in 1992. Pharon resides in Saudi Arabia and is considerd a fugitive from justice by U.S. authorities.