11-Jan-2012 - Pursuing a Scandal's Long Shadow

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By BRAD REAGAN ORLANDO, Fla.—Before MF Global, Bernard Madoff and Enron, the mother of modern financial scandals was BCCI—the 1991 collapse of an international bank that involved arms dealers, dictators, drug kingpins and Washington power brokers. Those swashbuckling characters dominated contemporary headlines. But for the past 20 years, an unlikely figure has played a central role. Adil Elias, a 59-year-old Orlando developer whose properties include a T.G.I. Friday's restaurant and a Volcano Island miniature-golf course, has battled international bankers, attorneys and liquidators to help depositors in the Bank of Credit & Commerce International get back their money. "Day and night, he's always on the case," says Tony Scott, owner of a West London photography studio, who was among the more than 800,000 depositors from more than 70 countries who had savings tied up at BCCI. He says most account-holders figured their money was gone for good, but not Mr. Elias. "He was the driving force" in the effort to recover as much as possible, says Mr. Scott, who also is active in the process. Any recovery was, by any reckoning, a long shot. The liquidators from Deloitte, the accounting firm appointed by a British court to recover the bank's assets, told depositors they would be lucky to get more than 10 cents for each dollar they kept with the bank. The take so far: about 8.5 billion, or more than 86 cents on the dollar. For Mr. Elias, the married father of two grown sons, the battle has taken a toll: He says he has suffered five heart attacks, which he blames on the stress of countless 3 a.m. conference calls with overseas attorneys and a travel schedule that has included more than 300 trans-Atlantic flights. The BCCI liquidation is expected to conclude next spring after dozens of lawsuits in courts from the Cayman Islands to Luxembourg and a handful of high-profile investigations, including inquiries by Congress. BCCI "was essentially kids nfl jerseys a criminal enterprise," says Richard Herring, a Wharton School professor who has written extensively on the bank. Prosecutors from around the globe obtained more than two dozen convictions, but most of the major figures avoided prison or died before they were sentenced. The NFL jerseys bank, established in Luxembourg in 1972, counted among its clients dictators such as Manuel Noriega, Colombia's Medellín drug cartel and even the Central Intelligence Agency, investigators found. The murky nature of many of the bank's operations made it difficult to identify and track down assets. That became Mr. Elias's mission. The son of a Sudanese clergyman, Mr. Elias says he received his Ph.D. in engineering in London and then returned to Sudan to work. After a coup in 1989, he was forced to leave the country, relocating in Orlando. His life savings—less than half a million dollars—was on deposit with BCCI, as were the savings of his siblings and extended family. Many of them successful professionals, Mr. Elias says they put more than 1 million of their own money into BCCI on his recommendation. But on the morning of July 5, 1991, Mr. Elias heard on his car radio a report that the Bank of England had closed BCCI and seized its assets. "This is a disaster," he recalls thinking, an assessment followed by a flurry of angry phone calls from family members. The next day, Mr. Elias flew to London, where he says he slept on the steps outside of the Bank of England for a week. He marched with other depositors on Parliament, where he literally bumped into a Member of Parliament named Keith Vaz. Mr. Vaz, whose district included many BCCI customers, was able to secure a meeting with then-Prime Minister John Major. Over tea, Mr. Elias argued that assets should be released to account-holders immediately. He lost, as the bank's assets were tied up in jurisdictional squabbling among governments. Mr. Elias was later elected by BCCI creditors to two five-member committees—one in the U.K., one in Luxembourg—that worked closely with the liquidators to approve all settlements and major actions. He was the only individual depositor to sit on both committees. Mr. Elias pursued twin causes: He wanted to show that the liquidators were being paid too much and that they weren't moving aggressively enough to track down assets. Mr. Elias was "the only one raising concerns" about many key issues in the liquidation, says Mr. Vaz, who remains in Parliament. In one instance, Mr. Elias was one of three creditors who filed a motion with the Luxembourg court opposing as too low a 350 million settlement with the government of Abu Dhabi—BCCI's majority shareholder—that the liquidators had negotiated. Two years later, the parties agreed on a 1.4 billion payout. Mr. Elias was "not the easiest person to deal with all the time but he's dug his heels in," says Bernard Clarke, who has represented BCCI's English creditors for more than 15 years. But Mr. Clarke says Mr. Elias's tenacious stance was ultimately helpful—and understandable. "He's lost his own money," he says. The liquidation was "a complete international pickle," Mr. Clarke adds. "I've had dogs born and died in that time." All told, about 1.6 billion of the more than 8.5 billion that has been collected in the liquidation has gone to fees, according to documents posted on the website for the liquidation. About 600 million of that has gone to Deloitte, the liquidator. A Deloitte spokesman declined to comment on Mr. Elias but defends the firm's performance, noting its fees were approved by the courts. "The anticipated final recovery of just short of 90% is an excellent outcome, particularly given the low expectations of recovery at the beginning of the process," the spokesman says. Mr. Elias still isn't satisfied, and plans more trips to London and Luxembourg. "There is a lot of money left," he says. "It just needs some hard, hard work." Mr. Elias wasn't paid for his efforts and he says his time away from Orlando "killed my businesses," a situation made worse by the downturn in the Florida property market. Driving around Orlando recently, he points to properties that are worth less than the amount he owes on them. The result: more meetings with bankers. Write to Brad Reagan at brad.reagan@wsj.com Printed NFL jerseys cheap in The Wall Street Journal, page C1

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