ABBAS Gokal, head of the largest single borrower from the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce lnternational (BCCI), was convicted yesterday for his part in the biggest known banking fraud.
Gokal was found guilty at London's Central Criminal Court of conspiring to account falsely and of conspiracy to defraud following a trial lasting nearly five months. He is expected to be sentenced on May 6th.
Britain's Serious Fraud Office: (SFO) said Gokal (61) had, with BCCI officials, "masterminded a massive fraud totalling approximately $1.2 billion (£764 million)
BCCI collapsed in 1991 and thousands of people lost their savings as a result.
The SFO, which investigates and prosecutes major financial fraud in Britain, said the BCCI case was the biggest fraud in banking history and the largest ever fraud trial.
The bank's symbiotic relationship with Gokal's Swiss-based Mideast Gulf shipping and trading group meant the fortunes of the two were inextricably linked.
So far, investigating and prosecuting those responsible has cost: around £15 million, including the £4 million cost of Gokal's case. Some estimates put the total cost of the Gokal trial, including the legal aid he received for his defence, at closer to £10 million.
Mr Chris Dickson, the SFO lawyer heading the BCCI enquiry team, said Gokal's actions had "brought despair to hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who put their savings into BCCI".
Mr Dickson said these people were proof "that human misery is the real cost of fraud". The jury in the case had heard that one of the individual losers was Mr Anant Shah, who lost the money he had been saving for a bone marrow transplant for his son.
The biggest loser from the collapse of BCCI was the Western Isles Council in Scotland which was owed £24 million.
The SFO said it had found documents signed by Gokal in a London safe deposit box which showed that he and his two brothers owned and controlled the companies involved in the fraud.
The prosecution had said that the sums received from BCCI supported Gokal's lavish lifestyle.
It said Gokal had needed large sums of money for his ailing business empire when the recession started to bite during the 198Os.
BCCI funded him with such large amounts that much of the lending had to be disguised because the bank was breaking guidelines.
Gokal, who denied the charges against him, fled from his company base in Geneva, Switzerland, to Pakistan in 1992. This followed the collapse in 1991 of BCCI.
He was arrested by German police at Frankfurt airport in July 1994 when the plane he was travelling on landed for refuelling on a flight from Karachi to the US.
He was extradited to Britain and has been in custody since his arrival in December 1994.
The conviction of Gokal, whose trial began last September, will be seen as a much-needed boost to the SFO. The office's record has been under scrutiny following several high-profile cases in which it failed to secure convictions after lengthy and expensive trials.
But the SFO has had considerable success so far with its BCCI cases. Gokal's is the fifth consecutive conviction to result from its BCCI investigations.
"This is a good result for those who say that juries can cope with long trials," said one legal source. There have been calls for scrapping the system of jury trials in financial fraud trials by those who argue that lay jurors cannot get to grips with complex financial cases.
