Kerry slams Bank on BCCI

The Observer ^ | 19/12/04 | Conal Walsh

[investigateworld]

If Kerry pushes this, Theresa best be digging out her widow's clothes. These are hardball players all the way.

[Libloather]

Check it out -

Lawyer nears end of record-breaking speech
Wed May 25, 5:28 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A British lawyer will conclude on Wednesday what is believed to be the longest speech in the country's legal history, breaking the record set last year by his rival in the same protracted courtroom wrangle.

Nicholas Stadlen has spent 119 days presenting the case for the Bank of England which is defending an 850 million pound compensation claim by creditors of collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), the Guardian newspaper reported.

When Gordon Pollock, BCCI's lawyer had finished his 80-day long opening remarks last year, Stadlen finally stood and said: "After six months the empire strikes back."

The case is so complex that a five foot high stack of files -- dubbed the Berlin Wall -- has grown between the two legal teams.

BCCI was closed in 1991 by regulators in a worldwide swoop, partly organised by the Bank of England, after it discovered the lender had disguised losses and was insolvent.

Liquidators of BCCI brought a legal suit against the Bank of England alleging the central bank wrongly licensed BCCI when it had not met the necessary Banking Act criteria.

[FormerACLUmember]

Almost equals Bill Clinton's interminable speech nominating (I think) Dukakis in some old democrat convention.

I like the reseach earlier in the post that Jamie Gorelick, the Clinton deputy attorney general (and Hillary agent) who in private life represented Clark Clifford and Robert Altman, the pair who ran Washington's First American Bank when it was illegally owned by BCCI.