As Members of the House of Assembly pushed today to pass two crucial pieces of anti-money laundering legislation, new light was being shed in international circles on Saddam Hussein’s financial dealings with a retired Swiss banker reporting to authorities that huge sums of money were moved through an account at a Bahamas-registered bank.
International media reports today said that Elio Borrador, a retired Swiss banker who admitted to serving as a trustee for Saddam in tax havens such as Liechtenstein, has told how he oversaw the movement of money through an account, codenamed “Satan” at the Banca del Gottardo in the Bahamas.
Reports also said that the former Iraqi leader and his sons are estimated to have stolen up to $US40 billion during their years in power, but only a fraction has been recovered since US investigators began an international search at the end of the war in April.
A team of experts from the US Treasury and the State, Justice, Homeland Security and Defence departments is in Iraq and more than 50 countries trying to locate what might be left of the funds.
The team is threatening sanctions as it demands that governments, banks and businesses come clean on what they may know regarding Saddam’s financial dealings.
The task, however, is not an easy one.
“What continues to emerge from the rubble of Hussein’s fallen regime is a disturbing tale of his ability to create a web of deceit under a comprehensive international sanctions program,” David Aufhauser, a Treasury lawyer, told a Congressional hearing in May.
Mr. Aufhauser said the greatest challenge for investigators now was to identify and trace the flow of Iraqi funds that Saddam had stolen and injected into the international financial system, hiding it behind a wall of straw men and front companies.
According to media reports studies estimate that between 1997 and 2001 alone, Saddam skimmed off $US6.6 billion in the form of kickbacks and backhanders from the sale of Iraqi oil under the United Nations’ Oil for Food program, which was intended to provide cash so the Iraqi people could be fed.
How Saddam funded his extravagant lifestyle and terrorist activities is again being highlighted, now that he has been captured.
The issue of terror financing became especially crucial after the terror attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, with Bahamian government officials reaffirming their resolve to prevent the jurisdiction from being seen as a haven to launder dirty money.
House members were today scheduled to pass a Bill for an Act to amend the Financial Transactions Reporting Act and the Tax Information Exchange Agreement bill.
The TIEA is designed to crack down on tax evaders by tearing down any obstacles to exchanging tax information with the United States, one of the issues on which American authorities are most adamant.
The Bahamas signed a TIEA with the U.S. in January of last year to help freeze terrorist funds.
One of the provisions of the agreement relates to a taxable period for a criminal matter than begins on January 1, 2004.
The Bahama Journal
