Gen Zia’s Spy Chief Named In Credit Suisse Leak

Islamabad, Feb 21: Former Pakistan president Late Gen Ziaul Haq’s spy chief is one of several figures from around the world whose names have been exposed in a massive leak of secret banking data from a leading Swiss bank, Dawn reported on Monday.

General Akhtar Abdur Rahman Khan who was one of Gen Zia’s intelligence chief and closest aides and the man largely credited with establishing the Mujahedeen network to counter Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan, helped funnel billions of dollars in cash and other aid from the US and other countries to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan to support their fight against the Soviet Union,” the report says.

Dubbed the ‘Suisse secrets’, this massive expose was carried out by a whistle-blower who claimed to have exposed the secret wealth of clients involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption. He gave the evidence to a German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

According to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the ‘Sussie secrets’ came to light after a network of journalists from around the world sifted through the data and identified accounts which were regarded as being potentially problematic and which held over $8 billion in assets. According to the revelations, an account was opened in the name of three of General Akhtar’s sons on July 1, 1985, the same year, US President Ronald Reagan would raise concerns about where the money intended for the mujahideen was going. By 2003, this account was worth at least five million Swiss francs ($3.7 million at the time). A second account, opened in January 1986 in Akbar’s name alone, was worth more than 9 million Swiss francs by November 2010 ($9.2 million at the time), the leaked records show”.

The General however, was never charged with stealing aid money. These revelations have exposed the failure of the bank and violating its commitments made to authorities to disown shady clients. Another OCCRP report was more specific which said that the Saudi Arabian and US funding for mujahedeen fighters battling Russian forces in Afghanistan would go to the CIA’s Swiss bank account.

“The end recipient in the process was Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence group (ISI), [at the time] led by Akhtar,” the report said. The report further states that “by the mid-1980s, Akhtar was adept at getting CIA cash into the hands of Afghan jihadists. It was around this time that Credit Suisse accounts were opened in the names of his three sons.”