Senate investigators, who spent more than a year looking into Riggs, found that the bank attempted to use offshore and other accounts that were misleadingly named to obscure their connection to Pinochet. In documents required by federal regulators, for example, the bank referred to Pinochet not by name but as "a retired professional" who held a "high paying position in public sector for many years."
Senior bank officials, including former chairman and chief executive Joseph L. Allbritton, were part of an effort to win Pinochet's business and were familiar with the activities in his accounts, the former dictator's legal status and efforts to seize his assets around the world, the Senate report says.
In addition to its account of Riggs's relationship with Pinochet, who was held in Britain after an indictment in Spain on charges of "crimes against humanity," the Senate report provides new details about Riggs's dealings with Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the dictator of Equatorial Guinea.