As recently as seven months ago, US authorities detailed in open court an extensive network of companies and bank accounts established by Osama bin Laden and his terror group -- enterprises as diverse as road construction and peanut farming.
Witnesses during the trial of suspects charged in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa identified businesses that bin Laden's al-Qaida group ran in Sudan to obtain equipment and cash and provide favors for the Sudanese government.
Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, a bin Laden associate turned government witness, recounted a 1992 meeting at which bin Laden was asked if the companies had to make money.
Speaking in broken English, he testified: "He say our agenda is bigger than business. We are not going to make business here, but we need to help the government and the government help our group, and this is our purpose."
Bin Laden was charged in connection with the 1998 embassy bombings but has never been captured. The embassy bombings case provides a glimpse of the money behind bin Laden's financing, outlining wide-ranging business holdings in Sudan through which he converted currency and imported equipment.
According to court records, Al-Qaida's Hijra Construction Co built the Thaadi -- or "revolutionary" -- Road from Khartoum to Port Sudan for the Sudanese government, which paid by giving al-Qaida ownership of the Khartoum Tannery.
Bin Laden and al-Qaida also ran the Themar al Mubaraka and the Blessed Fruits farming businesses, growing peanuts, fruit, sesame, white corn, sunflowers and wheat, according to testimony.
Products were run through other countries, including Cyprus, to evade international sanctions against Sudan and allow for a more profitable sale in Europe and the US, testimony showed.
Bin Laden associates with western passports sought to buy goods in other countries and sell them in Sudan at a price high enough to make a profit, according to testimony.
The trial also examined numerous bank accounts connected to bin Laden, at Barclay's Bank in London, Girocredit in Vienna, and a bank in Dubai.
Vince Cannistraro, former CIA counterterrorism operations chief, said he believes it's unlikely that bin Laden is using whatever is left of his estimated US$300 million inheritance to finance his terrorist network. As far as bank accounts, those accessible to Western governments, including the Barclay's Bank account, are closed down, he said.
Presumably bin Laden's financial transactions now go mostly through Asia, possibly including China, Cannistraro said.
Complicating the hunt for bin Laden's money is his likely use of "hawala," an underground Middle Eastern banking system, a source said. Parties in essence swap money to get it from place to place and avoid detection.
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