|
|
|
Saudi Royal Family Money Trail | The Terrorist Weapons Trade
The Associated Press broke a story early December 18, 2002 detailing
the arrests and warrants for suspects wanted in connection with yet another
Terrorist financial 
transaction scheme, emanating from a familiar so-called charitable fund,
the Hold Land Foundation. Earlier arrests occurred at the Illinois
chapter, but this time those indicted were in the Dallas and Richardson,
Texas areas. The case includes both valid and malicious donations
to the fund which are then funneled to terrorist groups either through
direct contributions to their members or to false flagged bank accounts
which cover the illicit financial transactions worldwide. This particular
case once again brings into possibility of the use of a High Tech company
as a means to generate payments to terrorist organizations, either through
bogus paychecks or false purchases for consulting or even physical goods
never delivered.
Today's indictment's include four brothers Ghassan Elashi and his brothers Bayan, Basman and Hazim Elashi, all working for Richardson, Texas computer company Infocom which does business in the Middle East and according to Fox News 1 was raided in September 2001 by federal authorities. Fox also reports that a fifth brother, Ihsan is already in custody for illegal import of computer goods to the Middle East.
"Ghassan Elashi is reported to be the vice president of Infocom, whose owner -- Mousa Abu Marzouk -- is a senior leader of the Hamas terror group, law enforcement sources said." 1Attorney John Ashcroft announced the indictments and arrests, naming Mousa Abu Marzook, a Hamas leader, and his wife, both believed to be in the Middle East. His wife is a cousin of the brothers. Court records show the couple invested more than $200,000 in InfoCom. They and the Elashi brothers are accused of money laundering, the traficking with Libya and Syria and filing false export papers naming Malta as the destination of the goods.
Sources:
© Copyright, 2002, Michael Crawford, MILNET