B.C.C.I. HONCHO JAILED
Former B.C.C.I. second-in-command Swaleh Naqvi was sentenced to eight years in the slammer and ordered to pay $255 million in restitution in connection with federal charges stemming from the biggest bank fraud ever. Naqvi now faces trial in New York Friday on state charges. But Naqvi's boss, B.C.C.I. founder Agha Hasan Abedi, is currently in Pakistan and unlikely to be brought to justice, says TIME correspondent S.C. Gwynne, who covered the scandal. Naqvi has pleaded indigence and probably won't pay the fines levied against him. Still, today's development is a significant victory for the feds. "Naqvi was the main record keeper . . . he really knew what was going on," says Gwynne. "In terms of the West, this is the only major perpetrator that we're likely to get."
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