Another "Loan" for Lance

No documents--but Passport X-000065 is gone

Most good ole Southern boys, in times of trouble and turmoil, strive to affect an air of bold insouciance. Few can match the macho mood of Bert Lance. Since his forced resignation as budget boss last September, Lance has continued to have the ear of his friend Jimmy Carter, and he is not shy in flaunting his special status to prospective business partners. He has trotted around the world flourishing Diplomatic Passport X-000065, which allowed him to bypass customs and which the White House intervened to keep for him. Earlier in March an organization called Friendship Force, founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, invited businessmen to a luncheon to hear Lance report on "a ten-nation European visit with heads of state," although Lance had visited only five countries and met no heads of state. Lance also has become the go-between for wealthy Middle Easterners trying to take over Financial General Bankshares Inc., which controls 15 banks in Washington, D.C., and four states, and that has landed him in more trouble.

It was bad enough that two weeks ago the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Lance and his friends with violating federal law by trying to conceal the extent of their purchases of Financial General shares. Lance's wife LaBelle and four Arabs, including the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Kamal Adham, reported to be head of the Saudi Arabian intelligence service, had bought 20% of the stock. They apparently coordinated their purchases so that nobody had more than 4.9% (5% or more would have required a report to the SEC). Without admitting any wrongdoing, Lance and others then signed an SEC consent order agreeing not to violate federal securities laws in the future.

Following that, Edwin McAmis, an attorney for Financial General, took a deposition from Lance in connection with a civil suit by other stockholders against Lance and his associates, and turned up yet another "loan" to Bert. This one is the most mysterious of the lot.

The loan could have been for as much as $3.4 million--Lance was vague on the precise amount--and came from London's Bank of Credit & Commerce International, on whose behalf Lance had approached Financial General with a bid for control. Or maybe the loan was from B.C.C.I. and a subsidiary. Lance said he used it last January to pay off his celebrated $3.4 million loan from the First National Bank of Chicago, and that was the only point on which he was definite. The latest loan, he said, was arranged by Agha Hassan Abedi, an energetic Pakistani who heads B.C.C.I. Collateral? None. Documents? Well, no, though Lance's lawyer, Robert Altman, says some are being drawn up now.

Interest rate? Repayment terms? Well, those were left to be negotiated later. Lance says the money was paid directly to First National. He did not himself handle the money, so he says.

Sniffs one Washington banker: "Nobody would lend me $35 under those conditions." The deal intensified suspicions that the takeover attempt on Financial General by Lance's associates was more than a normal investment by shrewd foreigners, and that they were willing to pay heavily for Lance's influence. "They wanted an important stake across the street from the White House," says one Washington banking executive, adding: "Some people might think it is important to know about the outstanding loans and balances of Government officials."

Speaking in Atlanta last week on his latest experiences as a TV commentator (on WXIA, an Atlanta affiliate of ABC), Lance refused to answer any questions about the loan, Financial General or any other matters of substance. But he did return his diplomatic passport --"voluntarily," says the White House--on the very day that he gave his deposition about the loan. Lance's airy explanation: Passport X-000065 was a matter not "important enough for the President to worry about."

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