Posted on 11/06/2001 5:41:31 PM PST by kattracks
| BRASILIA, Nov 6, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Brazil is investigating a massive money laundering scheme involving 261 million U.S. dollars transferred over the past seven years to a Lebanese bank via Bolivia, federal police said Tuesday. Brazilian Authorities have identified 15 people involved in the money transfer, of whom 10 are of Lebanese origin living in Brazil.One of the suspects reportedly sent 75 million dollars to Beirut's Byblos Bank, police said. The money transfer scheme was exposed by a Bolivian financial Investigation unit in 1999, when a local bank reported the transfer of 75 million dollars by Khaled Nawaf Aragi, who was imprisoned in Brazil for his involvement in the drug-trafficking and illegal arm sales, and Fernando Beira-Mar, known as Brazil's top drug-trafficker. Bolivian intelligence authorities started to investigate the origin of the money and finally determined it came from Brazil, with Lebanon and Pakistan as its final destination. The police said this could be the first reported incident of Arabs residing in Brazil who have financed international terrorists using third countries. However, the chief of Brazil's Institutional Security, Gen. Alberto Cardoso, said on Monday that no terrorist base has been found in Brazil.
Copyright 2001 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY |
Another tidbit on the money trail, if you can believe the source.
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