Much before Punjab & Maharashtra Bank, there was the BCCI – Bank of Crooks and Criminals

Juxtaposing the connections with the well-heeled, the bank maintained secret accounts for hordes of notorious people and institutions, including the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega, drug dealers and arms traders

It can be exceptionally alarming when we trust our money with a bank only to realize that the money managers were scoundrels.

Let me tell you a story which took place in the 1970s and 1980s. Needless to mention, versions of this con game keep appearing from time to time, ruining the life savings of millions of trusting common folks.

This story belongs to the very unscrupulous Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which took money from more than a million depositors from across the globe, to become a personal money bank for its Arab owners and Pakistani managers. In addition, to its favoured customers, millions of dollars were lent without asking for proper documentation and in violation of bank’s lending thresholds. Fake front customers were placed to mask the real borrowers.