Republic of Panama v. BCCI Holdings (Luxembourg) S.A.
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
119 F.3d 935 (1997)
- Written by Rose VanHofwegen, JD
Facts
The Republic of Panama (plaintiff) sued East Coast bank First American National Bank, N.A., First American Bank of New York (collectively, First American), BCCI Holdings (Luxembourg) S.A. (BCCI), and several other banking entities (collectively, defendants) in federal court in Miami, Florida. Panama alleged the banks violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) by participating in a scheme to help former Panamanian military officer Manual Noriega illegally divert government funds. Panama alleged BCCI subsidiaries surreptitiously controlled First American by acquiring its stock and misrepresented and concealed that control from federal regulators. Panama further alleged Noriega diverted millions into secret BCCI accounts worldwide, then BCCI laundered and redistributed the funds to the Noriegas for personal use through First American and other banks. The district court dismissed the claims against First American for lack of personal jurisdiction. Panama appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kravitch, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 833,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
