clarinews@clarinet.com (02/04/90)
ATLANTA (UPI) -- Former President Jimmy Carter says he will allow an international bank named in a drug money-laundering case to continue donating funds to a program he oversees that aids Third World countries. The Bank of Credit and Commerce International, founded in Luxembourg and managed from London, is a major contributor to Carter's Global 2000, a health and agricultural program based at the Carter Presidential Center. Federal prosecutors dropped money-laundering charges Jan. 16 against BCCI's holding company in return for guilty pleas by two of its subsidiaries, but an investigation of six bank employees is continuing. Carter, in a telephone interview Friday to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from Crested Butte, Colo., blamed the bank's problems on a ``few unsavory characters ... who were apparently tempted by bribes.'' He referred to the bank's legal problems as ``an unfortunate incident'' that has been resolved. Carter would not say how much money Global 2000 program receives from BCCI, the fifth largest private bank in the world, but said without its donations ``we would have to cancel all of our projects in Africa and Asia.'' ``Hundreds of thousands of people benefit from these programs,'' he said. Carter said the bank's donations go directly to countries where Global 2000 has food and health programs, including China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Zambia, Ghana and Nigeria. ``Every penny that we take is accounted for and is carefully audited,'' Carter said. ``None of it comes to Atlanta.'' The charges stem from a 1988 federal indictment in Tampa, Fla., against BCCI, two subsidiaries and nine current or former employees. All denied charges that they laundered $14 million in drug money. The company is cooperating with the investigation and has agreed to forfeit $14.8 million in an escrow account. In return for the plea, the government agreed to waive any future charges against the bank that might arise from the continuing probe. According to a Jan. 27 article in The Economist, a British news magazine, BCCI's name has surfaced repeatedly in drug cases without proof that the bank was every knowingly involved in money laundering. The magazine said BCCI has been accused of exchange-control violations and other banking irregularities in several countries.