BCCI accountant convicted

BCCI accountant convicted

Abul Hameed Chiragh, the 53-year-old chartered accountant at the centre of the BCCI banking fraud, was yesterday convicted of false accounting, conspiracy to defraud and perverting the course of justice following an investigation by the Serious Fraud Squad. Mr Chiragh was used by BCCI to draw up false accounts for bogus off-shore companies.Mr Chiragh was a friend of Saleem Khan, who is alleged to have received pounds 100,000 in bribes to orchestrate a fraud involving the transfer of $1.2bn (pounds 710m) of funds to Abbas Gokal and his Gulf Group of multinational companies. The fraud lead to the collapse of BCCI in 1991.