An Icon Falls in The B.C.C.I. Scandal

The Bank of Credit & Commerce International has cost depositors around the world billions in losses, ensnared officials in scores of countries in corrupt money-laundering schemes and acted like a government unto itself. Now its criminal operations have led to the indictment of an 85-year-old man with a reputation for rectitude and a distinguished five-decade career. New York State and federal authorities have charged Clark Clifford, the patrician lawyer who has counseled every Democratic U.S. President since Harry Truman, and his partner-protege, Robert Altman, with conspiracy to defraud by helping B.C.C.I. secretly buy and control two large U.S. banks. In a...