Exclusive: New Questions About Saudi Money—and Bandar

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093

April 12 issue - A federal investigation into the bank accounts of the Saudi Embassy in Washington has identified more than $27 million in "suspicious" transactions—including hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Muslim charities, and to clerics and Saudi students who are being scrutinized for possible links to terrorist activity, according to government documents obtained by NEWSWEEK. The probe also has uncovered large wire transfers overseas by the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. The transactions recently prompted the Saudi Embassy's longtime bank, the Riggs Bank of Washington, D.C., to drop the Saudis as a client after embassy officials were "unable to provide an explanation that was satisfying," says a source familiar with the discussions.

A Saudi spokesman strongly denied that any embassy funds were used to support terrorism and said Bandar chose to pull the embassy's accounts out of Riggs. The Saudis point out that an earlier FBI probe into embassy funds that were moved to alleged associates of the 9/11 hijackers has not led to any charges. The current probe, by the FBI and Treasury Department, is one of the most sensitive financial inquiries now being conducted by the government and is being closely monitored by the White House. The federal commission investigating 9/11 was also recently briefed on developments, sources say. U.S. officials stress that they have identified no evidence of any knowing Saudi aid to terrorist groups. But they express frustration at their inability to penetrate a number of large and seemingly irregular transactions. "There's a lot of money moving in a lot of directions—maybe not all that carefully," said one senior law-enforcement official. "Everyone wants to get to the bottom of it."

Among the payments that have drawn scrutiny, documents show, were $19,200 in checks between December 2000 and January 2003 from the Saudi Embassy to an Islamic cleric, Gulshair Muhammad al-Shukrijumah. The Florida-based imam has been on the FBI's radar screen for some time: he once testified on behalf of convicted terrorist Clement Hampton-El. The imam's son, Adnan G. al-Shukrijumah, also known as "Jafar the Pilot," is a suspected Qaeda operative who is the subject of a worldwide FBI manhunt. A Saudi spokesman said Gulshair al-Shukrijumah was a Saudi-funded "missionary" whose payments were terminated last year. Another area of FBI inquiry involves $70,000 in wire transfers on July 10, 2001, to two Saudis in Massachusetts. One of the Saudis wrote a $20,000 check that same day to a third Saudi who had listed the same address as Aafia Siddiqui, a microbiologist who is believed to have been a U.S. operative for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. A Saudi spokesman said the wire transfers had no connection to Siddiqui and were used to pay educational and medical expenses for Saudi families in the United States. But bureau officials say the matter remains under active investigation; a government document shows the bulk of the funds were wired to an account in Saudi Arabia.

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[w13rd0]

1. So not only did Bush divert money...

...in contravention of the Constitution, but he let a foreign national see top secret documents, and that same foreign national is under investigation for support of the organization whose pursuit we "called off" for a phony war with Iraq...

Whaaaa????

[liarliartieonfire]

3. Keep digging..Its not an iceberg..more like a glacier slowly moving

throughout the whole world.
Saudis are up to their eyebrows in this crap. Bush & pals have been allowing this for a long time.
It just business as usual for the Bin Laden/Bush Families.

[Oilwellian]

2. Oh goody, it's growing legs

Guess who the CEO of Riggs Bank is....

Regulators and congressional investigators say the Saudi accounts at Riggs provide a window into how the Saudi royal family moves millions of dollars around the world each year without sufficient monitoring of where the money ends up. They say the records indicate lax oversight by Riggs and by bank regulators. For example, the officials say, Riggs rarely until last year filed suspicious-activity reports, or SARs, to law enforcement agencies when spotting unusual and unexplained activity in embassy bank accounts.

Copies of more than a dozen SARs were obtained by The Washington Post. The reports detail various transactions by Riggs's embassy customers, but mostly about those involving Saudi officials. Riggs filed about 30 SARs in 2003 for transactions totaling $25 million to $30 million after an internal audit of recent years of activity in Saudi accounts, the sources said.

Information from the reports and the Saudi accounts are being studied by investigators including those in the FBI, which has been looking into Saudi-funded charities for several years for any potential financial links to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

According to one SAR, on Jan. 13, 2003, the Muslim World League, an Islamic charitable organization, wired $461,341.72 into an account at Riggs in the name of the "Ministry of Defense and Aviation-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia." The Muslim World League, which was founded by Osama bin Laden but was taken over by the Saudi government years ago, is largely funded by the Saudi royal family and by most accounts funds a variety of worthy causes around the world. But it is also the subject of scrutiny by congressional investigators and federal law enforcement agencies for possible terrorist connections in some countries, and some of its officials abroad have been linked to al Qaeda. Treasury agents seized files at the league's offices in Falls Church in March 2002.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20942-2004Apr17.html


Jonathan Bush (Junior's uncle) is the CEO, President and a Director of Riggs Bank.

Riggs & Co., the centerpiece of Riggs' full-service wealth management strategy, provides a comprehensive array of financial products in a highly personal manner to customers with extensive needs for financial services. Such services include financial planning, trust, investment management and life insurance, in addition to traditional banking products such as loans and deposits. Riggs & Co. has two investment management subsidiaries: RIMCO, founded by Riggs 11 years ago, and J. Bush & Co., a 30-year-old investment management firm. A broker-dealer subsidiary launched in 1999, Riggs Investment Corporation, has responsibility for Riggs & Co.'s sale of stocks, bonds and mutual funds, including the "Riggs Funds," a family of nine well-managed and diversified proprietary mutual funds. Riggs & Co. International operates two offices - one in London and the other in Jersey (Channel Islands).

http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/2apr11_01.html

Bush is (or was as of May 31, 2000), President, CEO and Director of
RIMCO. (From Disinfopedia, but it's a cut and paste of a press release if you want to track it down to Riggs as original source.) This also verifies the fact that his company was acquired by Riggs in 1997.

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Jonathan_J._Bush


May 31, 2000: Riggs Bank N.A. today announced that the Board of Directors of RIMCO, a wholly owned investment management subsidiary, has elected Jonathan J. Bush President & Chief Executive Officer and a Director, replacing Philip Tasho who resigned. In addition, Henry A. Dudley, Jr. was elected Chairman.

"Mr. Bush will continue as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., an investment management company he founded in 1970, which Riggs acquired in 1997. Mr. Dudley, a 24-year veteran of Riggs, will continue to be responsible for all of Riggs Bank's investment management, trust and private banking business.

"Located in the nation's capital, Riggs Bank has 53 branches in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, as well as banking offices in Miami, London and Berlin."

<more>
http://www.riggsbank.com/Wealth_Management/investment_advisors/inv_adv...

Expertise and insight tailored to your objectives
Regardless of the investment team you work with, you can expect the highest level of personalized service and an investment strategy that is customized to help you achieve your goals. Consider working with a Riggs professional from one of the groups below:

Riggs Securities: Riggs Securities offers investment guidance and a full range of competitive products to suit the needs of individuals and institutions. To contact an investment associate, call [phone] or 1-800-934-3883, or e-mail us at [e-mail] .

Riggs Investment Advisors Inc.: Riggs Investment Advisors manage assets for endowments, government pension plans, corporate retirement plans, cultural institutions and presidential libraries, and high net-worth individuals. Riggs Investment Advisors work with clients or their financial consultants to develop and maintain investment guidelines. We then monitor assets to be sure they are in compliance with these guidelines. To contact the Riggs Investment Advisors, call [phone] or 1-800-917-4626 or e-mail us at [e-mail] .

J. Bush & Co.: J. Bush & Company manages assets for high net-worth individuals, corporate benefit plans and foundations. J. Bush seeks to build wealth on behalf of clients primarily by investing in growth-oriented stocks and endeavors to develop long-term relationships with clients. J. Bush accepts accounts of $1 million or more. To contact J. Bush & Co., call [phone].

On edit: J Bush & Co. is definitely a formal unit of Riggs according to Riggs' annual report. (Riggs itself has been around since the 1800's, so Bush isn't a founder of the bank).

http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/annualreport2002.pdf

[Tatiana]

4. Oh what a tangled web.

It's a pity we don't have a competent media who will connect the dots and truly break this scandal wide open.

A Bush as the CEO of a bank that the Saudis used to funnel money to suspected terrorists? Not a surprise.

And the sheep have not a clue, nor do they appear to care. It gets to be really sad and frustrating at times.

[Brotherjohn]

5. I'm hearing a lot of talking in circles about "money for medical expenses.

... charitable contributions, educational expenses."

I looked at the older Newsweek, etc. stories on the Bandar links to two of the 9-11 terrorists yesterday. (Googled "Bandar" and the two hijackers' names, but I don't have them on hand) Those stories apparently were found by the FBI to be largely inconsequential, but the investigations were still in progress as of a year or so ago.

But with this, too, now we've got two 9-11 hijacker's, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and other known terrorists such as Aafia Siddiqui and "Jafar the Pilot", all being connected to large-sum transactions originating from Prince Bandar, through a bank headed by a Bush.

Now, unless Saudi money is so prevalent in the states that it flows freely to every Saudi national living here, I'm thinking this all looks a bit suspicious.

Bush just used the fact that Hussein "funded suiciders" as one of the last rationales he could come up with for why we went to war with Iraq. Yet Hussein (along with nearly every other Arab nation) merely paid funds to survivors of the "suiciders". Here, Bush's buddies (whatever the intention may have been) are financially supporting KNOWN TERRORISTS, including some of the same ones who attacked us, and before their attacks!

At the very least, it demonstrates that one of Bush's last hopes at a reason for Iraq as nonsense. In another sense, it might prompt one to ask "If we attacked Iraq on that basis, why are we not attacking Saudi Arabia?"