ARY Gold and Terror Finance
By Douglas Farah
In early 2002 I wrote a story in the Washington Post outlining the role Dubai-based ARY Gold had in helping the Taliban and al Qaeda move their assets out of Afghanistan before U.S. troops took control. The leader of ARY Gold, Abdul Razzak, threatened to sue me, but the story prompted a multinational investigation into the company and the use of gold and other commodities by terrorists and transnational criminal organizations.
Because the investigation was highly classified after it was underway, I have heard little of it in recent years. But now the Asia Times brings news of new developments in the case. The most interesting is tying ARY and Razzak to financial network of A.Q. Kahn, the Pakistani nuclear scientist who sold nuclear secrets and technology to Libya, North Korea, Iran and others.
On Aug. 30, 2005, ARY's status as an associate member of the London Bullion Market Association was revoked. Razzak's group of ARY companies (ARY are the initials of its owner, Abdul Razzak Yacoub, and most of his companies use the name in some form) are under investigation for large-scale money laundering and the operation of illegal hawalas, or money transfer systems. My full blog is here..