Attorney, Businessman. He had just negotiated a $7.5 billion deal in September 2020 for Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax, the parent company of video game giant Bethesda Softworks. He had started ZeniMax in 1999 after partnering with Christopher Weaver, a software developer who had founded Bethesda Softworks more than a decade earlier. Initially intended as a media and technology company, ZeniMax refocused on video games in the wake of the dot-com bubble, developing and publishing megahit franchises such as Doom, Quake, Fallout, Wolfenstein and the Elder Scrolls. As chief executive, he acquired a host of game developers and used his political connections to stock the advisory board with figures such as former US Senator George J. Mitchell, CBS chief Les Moonves, Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe and President Donald Trump’s younger brother, Robert. Long before he entered the video game industry, he was a sought-after lawyer, a protege to Clark M. Clifford, the former defense secretary and adviser to Democratic presidents. Together, they counseled corporate clients and politicians such as Jim Wright, who resigned as speaker of the US House during an ethics investigation, and Bert Lance, who left as President Jimmy Carter’s budget director following concerns about his personal finances. Then came the fraud case, which upended his life beginning in 1991. He had been familiar with the phenomenon known as the “Washington scandal” ever since he was a boy and had even advised clients who were going through it themselves. But it was far different to be the one on trial. The case centered on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, later dubbed the “Bank of Crooks and Criminals.” Prosecutors said it dealt with terrorists, drug cartels and dictators, and the company pleaded guilty to federal and state charges before closing in 1991, forfeiting $550 million in US assets. A decade earlier, a group of foreign investors fronting for BCCI had illegally taken control of an American bank, First American Bankshares. They were represented by Altman and Clifford, who succeeded in winning the Federal Reserve Board’s approval of the takeover after providing assurances that BCCI would not control the bank. In later years, they repeatedly said they were misled and had no idea BCCI was involved. The 1992 indictment followed reports that Altman and Clifford had borrowed money from BCCI virtually risk free, then used the funds to invest in First American stock that earned the two men a $9.8 million profit. The lawyers said the stock deal was fair compensation for their work with the bank. Prosecutors characterized it as a bribe. Altman ultimately went to trial on his own after a judge dropped the criminal charges against Clifford in 1993, citing health concerns. After four days of deliberation, he was acquitted of all state charges in New York. The federal charges were dropped, and in 1998 he and Clifford reached a $5 million settlement with the Federal Reserve Board. Under the settlement, which involved charges that the two lawyers had lied when they said BCCI would have no role in running First American, he agreed not to work in banking again without the Fed’s approval. He then became known for ZeniMax and maintaining a personal touch. He took steps to set the company apart even at video game trade shows. A few years ago, the company’s exhibit drew visitors in part by offering pours from $100 bottles of Glenmorangie. He was said to have personally insisted on the high-end whisky, according to Bloomberg News, with one staffer explaining that “he’d never offer a guest something he wouldn’t consume himself.” He married actress Lynda Carter in 1984 with whom he had two children, all of which survive him.