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The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Gerald Lewis.md

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2026-10-08 Political Figure
Person
BCCI
Gerald Lewis was the Florida state comptroller who refused to renew BCCI's license to operate in the state after the 1990 Tampa money-laundering conviction.
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investigated Bank of Credit and Commerce International Florida comptroller, licensing decision 1990 5

Gerald Lewis was the Florida state comptroller who refused to renew Bank of Credit and Commerce International's license to operate in the state after the 1990 Tampa money-laundering conviction.1

Role in BCCI Regulation

Lewis's decision to shut down BCCI's operations in Florida was a direct response to the bank's money-laundering conviction. He received letters from Charles Saphos, Chief of the Criminal Division Narcotics section of the Department of Justice, requesting that BCCI be allowed to remain open.2 Lewis, however, maintained that the bank had to comply with all legal requirements, including those related to felony convictions.3

Lewis's actions ultimately led to the closure of BCCI's branches in Florida.4

The Saphos Correspondence

The BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report reproduced the exchange. On January 31, 1990, the United States Attorney in Tampa, Florida, Robert Genzman, told Florida regulators that he took no position on renewing BCCI's license. BCCI's lawyers, the former federal prosecutors Lawrence Wechsler, Lawrence Barcella and Raymond Banoun, then approached the Criminal Division in Washington, and on February 13, 1990, Charles Saphos, head of its narcotics section, wrote to Lewis: "We are, therefore, requesting that BCCI be permitted to operate in your jurisdiction, with the understanding that certain accounts may be maintained by the bank, at the request of the Department of Justice, which otherwise would be closed to avoid legal and regulatory violations." Lewis replied on February 14 that because BCCI had pleaded guilty to felony charges "the ultimate decision of renewal becomes a difficult one," and invited Saphos and "any other appropriate Department of Justice officials to meet with me in Tallahassee on February 19, 1990." On February 16 Saphos withdrew: "I must apologize if there was ambiguity in my letter of February 13, 1990, which led to a belief on your part that the Department of Justice wished to influence your decision... The Department of Justice takes no position in that regard."5

Robert Mueller told the subcommittee that the first letter was "ambiguous at best" and that "I do not know what initiated it." The report concluded: "The obvious explanation for what happened is that Saphos was personally lobbied by people he knew who had formerly been with the Justice Department and now represented BCCI on the outside, and agreed to do them a favor."5

Closure of Bayshore Bank of Florida, 1987

On August 7, 1987, Lewis, as Florida State Comptroller, closed Bayshore Bank of Florida in Miami, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named receiver.6 The Eleventh Circuit later summarized the sequence: the Comptroller declared the bank insolvent on August 7, 1987, named the FDIC as liquidator under the Florida statute then in force, and the FDIC accepted the appointment shortly afterward.7 The FDIC's news release of that day gave the bank's total assets at closing as $40.4 million and said its insured deposits had been transferred to Eagle National Bank of Miami.6 The Miami Herald had reported in June 1987 that the bank's president, Louis Petrillo, had resigned just as federal authorities began investigating the transactions at the bank.8

Footnotes

  1. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. ↩︎

  2. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 88. ↩︎

  3. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 375. ↩︎

  4. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 374. ↩︎

  5. Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate. December 1992, ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm ↩︎

  6. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, news release PR-139-87, "FDIC Transfers Insured Deposits of Bayshore Bank of Florida, Miami, Florida," August 7, 1987. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/press-releases-federal-deposit-insurance-corporation-7031/fdic-transfers-insured-deposits-bayshore-bank-florida-miami-florida-641646 ↩︎

  7. Bayshore Executive Plaza Partnership v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., 943 F.2d 1290 (11th Cir. 1991). https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2861994068766344132 ↩︎

  8. "Newspaper says banker involved in loans for Contra arms," United Press International, dated June 10, 1987, reporting a Miami Herald story. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/06/10/Newspaper-says-banker-involved-in-loans-for-Contra-arms/9700550296000/ ↩︎