The book that is the subject of this review is The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI, by Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne. It was originally published in 1993, and tells the story of the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International and how the author's penetrated some of the most closely-held secrets of the bank and it's so-called Black Network, which was alleged to have been involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, and weapons sales in both the First World and Third World countries.

The authors separate their story into four distinct sections. The first and third sections deal mainly with their own experiences in tracking down the BCCI story. The second section of the book presents a brief overview of the economic conditions and geopolitical and historical situation that allowed the bank to flourish. The final section of the book ties up some of the loose ends and analyzes the entire story of BCCI and its dealings throughout the world from its start in 1972 until it was shut down in 1991.

Throughout the book, the authors make it a point to switch between the more technical and dense issues of financial markets, black markets, and history, and their own involvement in the story as reporters for Time magazine and independent researchers. This provides the book with a much faster-paced narrative than most books that present the historical facts and analysis, as the authors of The Outlaw Bank were able to penetrate very deeply into the bank's hidden dealings in weapons and the black market in general. These corrupt dealings were so rampant in the bank that Robert Gates, former Director of Central Intelligence under Bush I and current Secretary of Defense under Bush II, referred to the bank three years before it was shut down as the "bank of crooks and criminals," an apt analogy.

In fact, it is this involvement the authors had with various players in BCCI's "Black Network" that provides the most interesting parts of the story. BCCI made it a policy to buy influence in as many governments as possible, one reason being to compromise or buy off any possible regulation of its illegal activities. The bank was also a principal player in money laundering and drug trafficking, with some of their more famous clients being Manuel Noriega of Panama and the Columbian drug-trafficking Medellin cartel.

Some of the more interesting aspects of this Black Network involve the weapons deals that BCCI facilitated. These transactions are often described in the book in detail or provided in lists of exhausting deals between various governments. Every major country in the Middle East is identified as a client of BCCI in one way or another, including Iraq, Iran, and Israel. BCCI also shows up in the story of George W. Bush, when he was a director of Harken Energy that, without having any offshore drilling experience, was awarded a drilling concession for an offshore oil field in Bahrain that was worth millions of dollars.

Other areas that the authors focus on include the bank's involvement with William Casey and the CIA, the secret BCCI ownership of American bank First American, New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's case against BCCI, and the unwillingness of the US Justice Department to look seriously into the wide-ranging allegations against the bank. The authors present these topics throughout the book as their paths cross with the major players in the BCCI story, and show that the threads in this story lead to nearly all of the major players in the Middle East during the era in which BCCI operated.

The final point the authors have to make is that no significant banking regulations have been changed to prevent another BCCI from appearing, fleecing billions of dollars from its depositors, operating illegal throughout the world, and shutting down with virtually no assets available to pay back its creditors. The only difference between BCCI and other banks was simply scale: BCCI was the most corrupt, largest Third World bank ever to have been shut down. And there is nothing to prevent another BCCI from engaging in the same exact activities.

The Outlaw Bank provides a very interesting look into the public and private dealings of the most corrupt bank ever shut down, as well as how it was aided and protected by some of the most powerful departments in the US government and elsewhere. Although the book is more difficult to find now than when it was released, it is well worth locating and reading. The authors provide a well-written and easily-read analysis a unique perspective of the story of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.