The Unfolding BCCI Scandal

Your article “Marina Investor Tied to BCCI� (Part A, July 27) and the editorial “Mysteries in Marina del Rey� (July 30) go out of the way to link a private investment at Marina del Rey to the BCCI. The disclosure that Abdul Aziz Ibrahim is a Saudi Arabian businessman, has large accounts and owns a leasehold interest in the marina is interesting at most. Your warnings to the county supervisors to do additional homework on BCCI and solve the mysteries you somehow attribute to the Ibrahim family do not follow.

Many foreign corporations presently have substantial investments in Los Angeles, including downtown office buildings, the Hotel Bel-Air and Universal Studios. The Cayman Islands have long been used by banks and investors other than the BCCI. In fact, the Federal Reserve has regulations permitting U.S. banks to have Cayman Islands corporations in order to attract foreign deposits.

Am I to conclude that because a person did business with BCCI that additional homework is required? If this is true, then would not the same logic require additional homework on the innocent customers and investors of Lincoln Savings or other failed banks now part of the Resolution Trust Corp., where fraud by officers appears to have taken place? At issue is the private dispute between Abraham M. Lurie and the Ibrahims over a substantial real estate asset that sits on land owned by the county. Whatever investigation performed by the county supervisors, it should be done with necessary diligence as with other parties doing business with the county. That makes sense; the mysteries should be reserved for the tabloids.

GORDON R. LARSON

Shadow Hills