Malaysia's Bank Islam,linked to the TWRA,gains entry to Europe via the UK's European Islamic Investment Bank

According to Reuters:

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, Malaysia's oldest Islamic lender, has agreed with European Islamic Investment Bank (EIIB) on Monday to jointly offer sharia-compliant financial products in Europe.

"From now on, as far as possible, Bank Islam and EIIB will jointly originate, structure and distribute a range of innovative Islamic products, in particular in fee-income generating areas such as capital markets, treasury and wealth management," Bank Islam Managing Director Zukri Samat said.

(Source: http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=allBreakingNews&storyID=2007-09-17T095432Z_01_KLR24991_RTRIDST_0_BANKISLAM-UPDATE-1.XML)

I have previously published  on this blog evidence of links between  Bank Islam Malaysia and the Third World Relief Agency(TWRA)-see http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2006/11/jamal_barzinji_.html

I showed how Bank Islam Malaysia had probably acted as a conduit in funneling approximately USD 300 million in  TWRA funds out of Austria to Bosnia via Malaysia.

I also showed that Bank Islam was from its earliest days linked to  the SAAR
Corporation,  the Saudi-based Al Rajhi Banking and Investment
Corporation (ARABIC)  and Sheik  Salah Kamel's Al Baraka Group.

SAAR linked charities are still under investigation for supporting and financing terrorist groups in the US and elsewhere, while the Al Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation remains, shall we say, under watch (see story by Glen Simpson,U.S. Tracks Saudi Bank
Favored by Extremists at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118530038250476405.html).

Comments

[Ganesh Sahathevan]

Terrorist Financing in Bosnia and Bank Islam

A July 2003 story published in the "Slobodna Bosna" magazine of Bosnia suggests that Bank Islam Malaysia is holding or has held deposits worth about EUR 300 million for the benefit of the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA).

The story further suggests that these funds have been now made available to Bomsal , a Malaysian /Bosnian joint venture ,for the construction of a toll highway.( http://www.nato.int/sfor/media/2003/ms030725t.htm)

Bosmal itself has confirmed that it had received a financial facility from Bank Islam,for the highway as well as other development projects in Sarajevo. (see http://www.bosmal.com/en/?lg=en&nav_ID=1)

The subject matter of that story at http://www.nato.int/sfor/media/2003/ms030725t.htm ,and the claims made on the Bosmal website were put to Bank Islam .The responses received from Bank Islam were as follows:

First :

Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad is unable to comment or disclose the business dealing as we are governed by the Offshore Banking Act 1990, which clearly spells out client's confidentiality.....

And later:

kindly contact Corporate Communications Dept of the Central Bank of Malaysia at 603-2698 8044. We are unable to entertain your question as we are guided by the Banking Secrecy Act.

In Otober 2005 , the Malaysia business daily, The Edge quoted Bank Islam CEO Noorazman Hashim saying:

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd unveiled a comprehensive plan to tackle its whopping RM2.2 billion(about USD 5 billion) worth of non-performing loans (NPLs) last Friday. But little light was shed on how these bad loans arose in the first place, and more pertinently, who were responsible.
Datuk Noorazman A Aziz, the bank's managing director and CEO since April, narrowed down the cause to Bank Islam Labuan Offshore Branch .

Noorazman confirmed news reports that some RM450 million (about USD 113 millon) of the bad loans was made to companies in Sarajevo and South Africa. Market talk is that these companies are involved in construction and housing projects, and that more funds may need to be ploughed in to complete these projects before the borrowers can repay their debt .
(Excerpt from story: In the dark over Bank Islam NPLs (The Edge Malaysia (Weekly)-10 October 2005))

That EUR 300 million loan does not seem to appear anywhere in Bank Islam's books,and Bank Islam has refused to deny this assertion. As well the amount is way above Bank Islam's single customer lending limit.

Bank Islam’s involvement with Bosmal is viewed in the context of the following transactions.

In September 1990 The Malaysian Minsitry of Finance sold a 17.5 % stake that it then owned in Bank Islam , to a company named to JAMI Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Jami’s shareholders were the New York-based SAAR
Corporation, the Saudi-based Al Rajhi Banking and Investment
Corporation (ARABIC) and Sheik Salah Kamel's Al Baraka Group.
The minister for finance at that point of time was one Daim Zainuddin

Anwar Ibahim replaced Daim Zainuddin as Minister for Finance in 1991.

Bank Islam was floated and was listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange in 1992 .

In May 1994 the Ministry of Finance disposed of
its entire 21.14m shares in Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd to Lembaga Urusan
dan Tabung Haji(The Pigrims Board) and JAMI , and ceased to be a
substantial shareholder. A total of 18.46m shares were sold to Lembaga
Urusan dan Tabung Haji bringing its stake in Bank Islam to 35.70m
shares, or 26.76%. The remaining 2.89m shares were sold to Jami
Company, which was at that time the registered holder of 5.27m
shares.

JAMI’s interest in Bank Islam was represented on the latter’s board by Jamal Barzinji,who was appointed a director in 1994 and appears to have remained one until sometime in 2003.

Jamal Barzinji’s background was summarised thus by Glen Simpson of the Wall Street Journal:

Jamal Barzinji, Ahmed Totonji and Hisham Al-Talib

--, this trio of Iraqi immigrants founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought(together with Anwar Ibrahim). They have long-standing ties to Youssef Nada of the Muslim Brotherhood and to Saudi businessmen involved in promoting Islam world-wide. Beginning in the 1960s and '70s, they helped found and run several top Saudi-backed U.S. Muslim groups.

-- Messrs. Barzinji, Al-Talib and Totonji are under federal investigation,

but they deny ties to terrorism. Their lawyer says they are no longer close

to the Saudis.

(Tangled Paths: A Sprawling Probe Of Terror Funding Centers in Virginia --- U.S. Tries to Tie Maze of Firms, Charities Based in Herndon Into a Global Network --- Bin Laden's `Golden Chain' By Glenn R. Simpson ,WSJ21 June 2004)

Jamal Barzinji’s background was summarised by Glen Simpson of the Wall Street Journal:

-- Messrs. Barzinji, Al-Talib and Totonji are under federal investigation,

but they deny ties to terrorism. Their lawyer says they are no longer close

to the Saudis.

(Tangled Paths: A Sprawling Probe Of Terror Funding Centers in Virginia --- U.S. Tries to Tie Maze of Firms, Charities Based in Herndon Into a Global Network --- Bin Laden's `Golden Chain' By Glenn R. Simpson ,WSJ21 June 2004)

[Ganesh Sahathevan]

Email sent to "Abe Foxman" returned with following error message:

The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----

(reason: 550 Host unknown)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
550 5.1.2 ... Host unknown (Name server: talmudic-terror.com: host not found)

Final-Recipient: RFC822; lying-zionists@talmudic-terror.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.2
Remote-MTA: DNS; talmudic-terror.com
Diagnostic-Code: SMTP; 550 Host unknown
Last-Attempt-Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:55:30 GMT

[Abe Foxman]

Oy veh!

Israeli bank caught giving money to designated terrorist group Hamas. I can't wait for your "investigations" and denunciations of Bank Hapoalim.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL03139119