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The author, Bill Gallagher, is a Peabody Award winner and a former Niagara Falls city councilman who now covers Detroit for Fox2 News. His e-mail address is gallaghernewsman@sbcglobal.net.
Citigroup Laundering Saudi Cash Used To Fund Jihadist Terrorism
DETROIT -- Did Citigroup, one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world, help transfer funds into accounts used to bankroll terrorism? Why do prominent Saudis involved in funneling money to "charitable" accounts that end up funding terrorism escape scrutiny?
Why would the FBI, when given evidence of such conduct, promise to investigate, and then wait 17 months to question the whistleblower? Why would the FBI then suddenly drop the probe just two weeks into it?
These questions haunt Leonard D. Wallace, and the Florida-based financial consultant has spent more than five years working to expose and unravel a baffling $5 billion deal involving Citigroup, a fabulously wealthy Saudi prince and money transfers bouncing around the world.
Wallace suspects money shuffling into what the Saudi government dubbed an Account 98. These are supposed to be accounts supporting humanitarian causes, but some of the money from them has been given to the families of suicide bombers, honored "martyrs." Saudi money has enabled and nurtured al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's operations from the get-go. Those funds and the spiritual inspiration of radical clerics helped provide bin Laden with the 15 Saudi hijackers of the 19 he used in the 9/11 attacks.
The Saudi government keeps a tight lid on Account 98 records and shields them from any outside examination. Interpol, the CIA and many other intelligence and criminal investigation agencies would find a treasure trove in the trail of international terrorism and who provides the funding for it with just a peek at Account 98 records. That's why the Saudis wrap them in secrecy.