With a list of clientele including millions of global kingpins ranging from Kazakhstani presidents to Balkan cartel leaders, the Zürich-based Credit Suisse investment bank has long been heralded as the mecca for private banking internationally. Spanning centuries of financial experience, the Swiss have upheld their reputation internationally for operating a no-questions-asked policy with regards to the affairs of their clients.
However, the prestigious institution which houses billions of black francs, out of sight from public eyes, has been lacking on its policy of seclusion as of late. Over the past two decades, Credit Suisse has persistently pledged to tackle the wrongdoing of their clients; an ad nauseam repetition of undertakings guaranteeing to rid their bank of lucre. However, according to files the German Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper has become privy to, this is not the case.
The Suisse secrets have revealed the barebone investments of thousands, dating back to the 1940s, who exploited the bank as a medium to funnel national funds into malicious activity abroad. Notable members of this list of strongmen include the Jordan King Abdullah II, his wife, Queen Rania, former Egyptian president Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, Latin American officials involved with the cocaine trade, and more.
Other figures joining a list of gangland chieftains and mafia heads include Pakistan’s late General Akhtar Abdur Rahman Khan. Operating under the Zia-ul-Haq government in the 80s, Akhtar was a senior architect in the United States’ mujahideen effort in Afghanistan. However, the “Suisse secrets” report that his role in this program was much deeper, confirming that Akhtar was a keystone figure in the channelling of billions of U.S. dollars into Afghani ‘freedom fighter’ pockets, in order to aid their plans to overthrow a Soviet-backed Afghanistan.
Known as the second-in-command with reference to the Zia dictatorship of the 80s, the ISI chief’s accounts at Credit Suisse were well-hidden. In 1985, three of General Akhtar’s sons—namely Akbar, Haroon, and Ghazi—opened an account at the firm, eventually lodging almost four million U.S.Dollars into the account within a span of two years.
The papers reveal that Saudi and U.S. monies headed for communist Afghanistan passed through by means of a Swiss CIA-operated bank account, which would then be transferred into the hands of General Akhtar.
Ghazi Khan alleges that information surrounding the existence of the accounts was “incorrect” … “the content is conjectural.”
Perhaps the late barrister and admired establishment critic Asma Jahangir had foreshadowed the onslaught of militia corruption one day when she popularly stated that when the corruption of senior military leaders would be subject to investigation, “the rest of the [populace] will look like angels.”
