Luxembourg Banks Deny Bin Laden Connection

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

02 October 2001

There has been some confusion following the release of a list of financial institutions with possible links to Osama Bin Laden last week, as several of the banks named have claimed that they were erroneously listed.

The Islamic and Persian Gulf banks which were pinpointed by regulatory authorities in Luxembourg were named last week by Bloomberg news as: the Al Shamal Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Faisal Islamic Bank, Kuwait Finance House, and Bahrain International Bank. The naming coincided with the Bush administration's release of a list of individuals, organisations, and charities thought to to have links with the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

However, Bahrain International Bank has claimed that it was listed in error, an assertion which was supported by a US government official in a recent Washington Post report. And despite testimony given during the trial of Al Qaeda-linked terrorists who took part in the bombing of US embassies earlier this year, which stated that the Saudi dissident had an account in his own name at Al Shamal Islamic Bank, the bank's general manager Mohammed Sheikh Mohammed, has denied any link with Bin Laden.

There is also confusion over the inclusion of Faisal Islamic Bank on the list, as there are reportedly several banks with similar names in the jurisdictions under investigation. However, President Bush seems happy with the progress being made through internal and international investigations, and gave a confident radio address to the United States on Saturday: 'We have launched a strike against the financial foundation of the global terror network,' he asserted. 'Our goal is to deny terrorists the money they need to carry out their plans.'

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