Banking No Amiable Dunce

His hands tremble, his voice sometimes cracks, his face is deeply lined, and he needs a two-hour rest in the middle of each working day.

At 84, Clark M. Clifford is an old man. And his six-month battle to disprove that, as chairman of Washington's First American Bank, he knowingly acted as a front for the criminal Bank of Credit & Commerce International has taken a visible toll.

But anyone who thought the doyen of Washington power brokers was either pitiable or defenseless was quickly disabused of that idea last week. At a hearing before the House Banking Committee, which is investigating links between B.C.C.I. and First American, Clifford gave a forceful 90-minute soliloquy in his measured baritone, serving notice that proving him guilty would be a prodigiously difficult task.

Committee members were nonetheless openly skeptical. Referring to a prepared statement by Clifford and his protege-partner, Robert Altman, which characterized their own conduct as "entirely proper," Wisconsin Republican Toby Roth said, "I don't believe a word of it. You've been in bed with B.C.C.I. for 10 years, and you're telling us all you got was a back rub."

Behind the panel's skepticism are records showing that Clifford and Altman had profited hugely from their role as legal counsel to B.C.C.I. and several of its subsidiaries. As chairman and president of First American, they also received millions of dollars in B.C.C.I. loans to buy bank stock, on which they made $10 million in profit. The committee documents further note that Clifford and Altman may have lied to U.S. authorities about their knowledge of B.C.C.I's purchase of First American.

Often faced with the choice of appearing either venal or stupid, Clifford and Altman skillfully parried most questions. Clifford justified his large stock profits by explaining that he had taken only a nominal salary of $50,000 a year, and that the stock gains were a result of his successful efforts to boost the value of the company. Asked how they could possibly have been unaware that they were involved with a criminal enterprise, the two pointed out that B.C.C.I. had also managed to fool the Bank of England, Price Waterhouse and the Bank of America. But their polished responses did not appear to sway many members. Referring to Clifford's widely quoted 1981 description of Ronald Reagan, Wisconsin's Roth said, "I do not believe you are an amiable dunce."