Key Figure In International Bank Scandal Dies At 74

Agha Hasan Abedi, who founded the Bank of Commerce and Credit International and watched it collapse in one of the world’s largest bank frauds, died Saturday in a Karachi hospital. He was 74.

Doctors at the Aga Khan Hospital said Abedi’s wife was at his side when he died of heart failure, five days after he was admitted for chest pains. Abedi’s health had been failing since a heart transplant in 1988.

A court in the United Arab Emirates convicted Abedi last year of fraud and sentenced him to eight years in prison. But Pakistan refused extradition requests from the UAE and from the United States.

Abedi founded BCCI in 1972 with just $2.5 million - and the dream of creating a Third World financial empire. For nearly a decade, it was the world’s fastest-growing bank.

At its peak, BCCI had 1.3 million depositors and operations in more than 70 countries around the globe - from Pakistan to Nigeria to London to Washington to Panama to Los Angeles to Hong Kong.

It reportedly handled money from Colombian cocaine cartels, Arab terrorists and the CIA.