Twelve senior executives of Bank of Credit & Commercial International (BCCI) were sentenced to a total of 61 years in prison by an Abu Dhabi court on 14 June. Those sentenced include former BCCI president Agha Hasan Abedi, who is in Pakistan, and former chief executive Swaleh Naqvi, who is on trial in the US.

Analysts say that they expect a final agreement to be reached later this year between the bank's creditors and the majority shareholders which have offered up to $2,200 million to help compensate for losses. Opposition to the compensation package has been dwindling as a growing number of creditors have accepted that no further financial support would be forthcoming. BCCI was closed in most international centres in July 1991.

BCCI liquidators are still trying to track down about $10,000 million which the bank is believed to have lost in fraud. The Abu Dhabi court ordered the 12 convicted former executives to pay $9,000 million for their involvement in the losses incurred at the bank. The liquidators have issued writs against BCCI's former directors and former BCCI auditors Price Waterhouse and Ernst & Young (MEED 15:4:94).