The long arm of the law

摘要

If you asked Robert Morgenthau which of his prosecutions he was proudest of, you might expect him to give a half-smile, pause to knock out his cigar in the brown glass ashtray, and in his usual soft growl—a strange blend of modest, clipped patrician and Noo York—reply that it was his pursuit of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. He trailed this shady outfit, laundromat of choice for narcos, terrorists and dictators, for years, before nailing it for fraud in 1991 and forcing it to close. All its assets were forfeit, and it lost $15bn. It was the biggest bank-fraud prosecution in world financial history, spanning 76 countries, and if you wondered what a da from Manhattan was doing in it, his answer came with more than a half-smile: "The long arm of the law."