When times were golden for Florida coffee importer Munther Ismael Bilbeisi, he would tell friends his business was so important that the Bank of Credit & Commerce International set up a special branch in Boca Raton just to handle his accounts and those of a few other high rollers. His boast was not unfounded. During the 1980s his Coffee Inc. sold millions of pounds of Central American beans to American buyers. A Mercedes, a Porsche and a Rolls-Royce sat in the driveway of the expatriate Jordanian's $1.8 million home.
Today Bilbeisi's relationship with the shadowy $30 billion bank is no longer...