Yassin Al-Kadi:Still in business

Up until the middle of 2005, Clearstream Banking  of Luxembourg used to display on their website their list of customers from around the world.These clients included 2 companies from Malaysia,  ABRAR DISCOUNTS BERHAD and ABRAR FUTURES SDN BHD. Both these companies are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Abrar Group International Sdn Bhd, a company that is controlled by the SGDT Yassin Al–Kadi  When Clearstream were questioned about the issue, that list was withdrawn from their website.

 

Al–Kadi and his Malaysian associates Drs Rahim Ghouse and Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman started-up the Abrar Group in the US,but then shut-down their US operations at around the time that the FBI commenced investigations into their dealings.They then moved their base to Malaysia.

However,  a US subsidiary , SCR Financial Inc (formerly knownn as Abrar Securities Inc) , a NASDAQ licensed securities dealer,was transferred to Daniel R. Hutton, who was once  an Abrar director.

In the UK, Barclays Private Banking's  set-up a shariah compliant mutual fund, Barclays Islamic Portfolio (BIP) in 1999. According  to the Middle East Economic Digest the fund uses  the National Management Consultancy Center (NMCC), Jeddah, as its shariah adviser. There is evidence that the NMCC is also a company headed by Yassin .

In Australia, Dr Rahim Ghouse , who now heads the Muslim Community Co-Op Australia, recently received a licence from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission , ASIC , to act as an authorised representative for the shariah compliant  Crescent Ethical Managed Discretionary Account product, which has been designed  by the MCCA in collaboration with a Melbourne fund manager , Intrinsic Investment Management Ltd. ( see http://www.investaustralia.net.au/page.php?id=home2&product_id=102) .

 

The product is being promoted  as a vehicle for investors with at least AUD 100,000 to invest in shares listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, in accordance with shariah principles.

Ghouse remains a shareholder of Abrar Group International ,together with Yassin Al–Kadi  . The  MCCA under his watch  has sponsored seminars in Australia on shariah compliant investing at which the main speaker was the CEO Abrar Discounts, Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Kamil.

 

In 2003 and 2004, another MCCA employee, Zulfikar Mohd Shariff, launched a public campaign to discredit a number of  journalists  who were investigating an Australian incorporated shelf-company whose assets were said  by the Rating Agency Malaysia to be worth USD 8 billion, mostly in cash.

 

The company had obtained a licence to operate a deposit-taking bank in the Malaysian tax-haven of Labuan. The licence has since been varied so that Commercial IBT can only operate an investment bank.

 

When questions were raised about the company by the Malaysian opposition, opposition MPs who raised the questions were approached by Yassin Al–Kadi  and Ghouse's other partner , Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman , in an attempt to stop questions being asked.