Middle East accounts of U.S. bank probed
Timothy L. O´Brien NYT Friday, April 2, 2004

As the FBI, banking regulators and a congressional committee look more
deeply into Saudi Arabian transactions at a Washington bank used widely by diplomats, a host of accounts controlled by representatives of several Middle Eastern countries have also come under scrutiny, according to an individual briefed on the investigations.

Investigators have been examining cash transactions in foreign accounts at the bank, Riggs National, especially those for Saudi Arabia, for possible connections to terrorist groups or money-laundering activities. Accounts controlled by diplomats from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman have been included in the inquiry as well, this person said. Saudi representatives said that investigators had told them that their Riggs accounts were not tainted.

In addition to the Middle Eastern accounts, a corporate account controlled
by the president of the West African country of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro
Obiang Nguema Mbasago, is also being examined.

Millions of dollars in money that regulators and the bank have identified as
questionable have flowed through that account. It was opened under the name of a corporation called Otong, and money began moving through it as early as 1999, according to a regulatory report dated Jan. 30 that Riggs filed with federal banking regulators.

Although Riggs closed all of its Equatorial Guinea accounts in February,
activity in accounts before then have drawn attention because Exxon Mobil,
the oil giant, deposited about $300 million into Mbasago´s personal Riggs
accounts. Although Equatorial Guinea has struggled with poverty, its economy has grown sharply in recent years because of the discovery of large oil reserves there. Exxon Mobil is one of the country´s biggest oil producers.

It is not clear whether money from Exxon Mobil found its way into the Otong account. Exxon Mobil and Equatorial Guinean officials could not be reached for comment.

Seven transactions in the Otong account from September 1999 to April 2002 that totaled about $11.5 million have drawn special scrutiny. A Riggs compliance officer told Riggs´s own investigators last September that money in the Otong account came from overseas accounts that Mbasago had closed -an explanation that U.S. investigators have found unsatisfactory. Federal officials are looking into the possibility that money in the Otong account was used to bribe employees of U.S. companies or involved the proceeds of political graft, according to an individual with direct knowledge of the inquiry.

The role played by Equatorial Guinea´s ambassador to the United States, Teodoro Biyogo Nsue, in the fund transfers is also being investigated.

Riggs has been cooperating with the FBI investigation and regulatory examinations since the fall of 2002. The bank said it had not ”willfully” violated any laws. ”Riggs always cooperates with regulators and law enforcement officials, but Riggs has no indication that we are or ever were the target of an FBI investigation,” said Adam Weiner, a spokesman for the bank. The investigation was prompted by an examination of transactions at Riggs by Saudi Arabia´s ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, and his wife, Princess Haifa, in 2002.

At the time, FBI officials were investigating whether money from the
princess´s accounts wound up in the pockets of two of the people involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The Associated Press has reported that two students who received money from Princess Haifa´s accounts and passed them along to the hijackers had no knowledge of the Trade Center attacks before they occurred. FBI officials could not be reached for comment. Saudi Arabia´s possible financial sponsorship of terrorist groups has drawn close attention from law enforcement officials since the Sept. 11attacks, and the Riggs accounts initially drew attention as part of that inquiry, said a federal investigator briefed on the inquiry.

A spokesman for the Saudi Arabian Embassy said that the FBI had ”repeatedly and as recently as a week ago informed the embassy that there were no concerns” that Saudi accounts at Riggs involved terrorist funds or the proceeds of money laundering.


The New York Times

Fuente: Ney York Times (literal en inglés)

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