Naming Names: The Bin Laden Galaxy

Seven decades after its creation, the family group SBG (Saudi Binladin Group) is today directed by Bakr M. Bin Laden, born in 1947. The Board of Directors is composed of Saleh Gazaz, Mohammed Bahareth, Abdullah Bin Said, Mohammed Nur Rahimi, Tarek Bin Laden and Omar Bin Laden. Developed in Djeddah, it is present on all five continents.

The group is comprised of multiple divisions and affiliates. The principle holdings are the following, according to their activities: Binladin Group International for construction, present in Egypt, Jordan, Liban, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates; Bemco for energy; Binladin-Bemco for electric engineering; Mohammed Bin Laden Organization for infrastructure; Project Management and Development Co Real Estate for real estate; the Al Salem Group for industry; Mimar Industrial Group for textile, equally present in Lebanon, Great Britain and Spain; Casareen Contract Manufacturing for clothing distribution in Great Britain; Palwa Beleuchtungs Gmbh (or co.) and Palwa Iberica for crystal production in Germany and Spain; Hazar Media Group in newspapers in Lebanon, France, Great Britain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates; United Saudi Maintenance & Services Co. for maintenance services; GFC and Casareen Retail International for distribution in Great Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, Egypt, Lebanon, France and the United States; Forship Ltd in the transport of freight in Great Britain, France, Egypt and Canada; Binladin Telecommunications Co. (which became Baud Telecommunications in 1999) for telecommunications and the Middle East International Group (MEIG) in Switzerland for public relations.

SBG has a European antenna based in London. The structure is directed by a British man, Leonard Cowking and Bakr Bin Laden.

Leonard Cowking is also a director, along with Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla, of Turkey Rock UK Ltd, a somewhat ill-defined affiliate of SBG.

The international affiliate of SBG, Binladin Group International (BGI), based in Djeddah, is equally directed by Bakr Bin Laden (CEO), Yahia Bin Laden (General Director), Omar Bin Laden (President) and Hasan Bin Laden (Vice President) The Operational Director for public works and airports is Abu Baker S. Al Hamed. The construction division is coordinated by Ahmed M. Bin Laden. Henry Sarkissian is the director of industrial and energy projects. Mu’taz Sawwaf assures the direction of the architecture division and interior design. Shafiq M. Bin Laden is a member of the Board of Directors.

Hasan, Vice President of BGI, was equally a director of Iridium Middle East LLC, given the Binladin Group was a stockholder.

The affiliate Binladin-Bemco and Mechanical Industrial and Power Contracting intervenes in the electrical engineering domain. It is directed by Henry Cabrera and Bakr Bin Laden.

Among the members of the Board of Directors figures in Souren M. Sarkissian, Henry M. Sarkissian and Greg M. Sarkissian. The corporation is also a stockholder in Binladin Bros. for Contracting and Industry, directed by Bakr M Bin Laden, who is a stockholder of Saudi Traffic Safety Ltd and the Arabian Aerosurvey Company Ltd..

In Europe, the affiliate Casareen Retail International Ltd. was based in London and was involved in distribution. It was directed by three Britons, Mark Adams, Thomas Payne and Nabella Khan until its dissolution on July 17, 2001.

Nabella Khan also performed executive functions for Capex Ltd. She is also present on the Board of Directors of Hazar Licensing & Marketing Ltd. and Casareen Ltd, directed by Sadek Sawwaf.

One establishment, Casareen France, was created on October 6, 1992. It was located in Courbevoie in the Haute-Seine and was directed by Charles Nakhle, a Lebanese-born gentleman, and then by Mohamad Kammourieh.

The SBG Group is equally represented in Europe by Hazar Publishing Ltd.. The company is directed by Basim Nicolas Ziadeh, a Lebanese businessman. In France, the “Editions Hazar” (Hazar newspapers) is parked in Courbevoie and is under the direction of Charles Nakhle also.

Basim Nicolas Ziadeh is a member of the “Conference Nationalist Arabe” (Nationalist Arab Conference), composed notably of Egyptian Islamists. It is near, or at the heart of, the Mona Al-Solh movement, a creation of Hisham Al-Solh and Dalia Salaam Rhishani of the British Lebanese Association of London, which is aligned with or collaborates with the Azzam family (Azzam Publications), who openly support Osama Bin Laden. Basim Nicolas Ziadeh is also involved with this movement with Diaeddin Daoud, Secretary General of the Egyptian Nassérist Party. He frequents the Sunni mosque Al-Azhar in Cairo (near to the name of the publishing house he directs) which in December of 1998 openly called for a jihad against the United States. Diaeddin Daoud has been arrested two times with members of the Muslim Brotherhood (1977 & 1981). Osama Bin Laden is a Sunni.

Mu’taz Sawwaf, a Lebanese man who directs BGI, also participates in the direction of “Dar Al Reisha for Publishing and Distribution” which is located at the same address as Hazar Publishing in London, along with Mustafa Kamal Kassas.

Forship Ltd., based in London, provides freight transport and has been in business since 1989. The company is directed by Adnan Kronfol, an American born on March 1, 1947, and Omar Youssef Salhab (who is involved with some other French affiliates). In France, Forship is represented by the Lebanese-born Nou had Gholam.
SBG is represented equally in Europe with an affiliate involved in public relations, the Middle East International Group (MEIG AG) in Zurich (Switzerland). The company, created in 1998, is directed by Hasan Bin Laden, Elisabeth Guggenheim and Pierre Guggenheim.

The textile activity is performed by the Mimar Trading Im Und Export Gmbh (“co.”). The company was created in 1994 and is directed by Mohammed Ghazi Ragheb. It has an affiliate in the Netherlands called Mimar Trading directed by U. Ozdemir, born on September 1, 1970.

At last, their activities in the production of crystal in Germany is performed by its affiliate Palwa Beleuchtungs Gmbh. The company, created on March 30, 1987, is directed by Mohammed Ghazi Ragheb (director of Mimar Gmbh) and Ahmed Farid Al Azem and the majority shareholder is Basim Nicolas Ziadeh (Director of Hazar Publishing in London and Multimedia Ventures Ltd. with Namir Michael Cortas – equally present in Hazar Publishing - in London as well).
Farid Al Azem, Director of Palwa, is also a director of the Eqyptian Finance Company based in Cairo, Egypt. This investment and finance enterprise was created in 1974 with the principle stockholders being the American Express Company and the Saudi-based Olayan Group. Its Board of Directors is composed of Farid W. Saad, Mounir F. Abdelnour, Jamal W. Saas, Gilbert N. Gargour, Akram Abdul Hijazi and Elie Baroudi.

The Olayan Group is directed by Suliman Saleh Olayan, born November 5, 1918 in Onaira, Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Akram Ojjeh, Kamal Adham and Ghaith Pharaon.

Akram Abdul Hijazi, born on November 14, 1939, of Greek nationality, directs the British company Worldmass Ltd..
Elie Baroudi is a member of the Board of Directors for International Corporate Bank Inc. who touts American Express also as a shareholder.
As for Mounir Abdelnour and his brother Fakhry Abdelnour, they direct the company Middle East Petroleum and Interstate, registered in Panama, which fournished Egyptian petroleum to South Africa in the beginning of the 1980s in violation of the embargo imposed by the United Nations.

Those operations which defied the embargo were coordinated by the South African Strategic Fuel Fund. During the same time period, Fakhry Abdelnour had a relationship with an intermediare, one Emmanuel Shaw, ex-Minister of the Economy for Liberia, who also participated in these operations by way of the Tiger Oil Company (with his partner Marc Rich, the arms merchant implicated in Irangate, wanted by the FBI until his controversial pardoning by Bill Clinton just before he left office).

Emmanuel Shaw directs an offshore entity, First Liberian Holdings, one of the partners being Mazen Rashad Pharaon, Ghaith Pharaon’s brother, born on September 7, 1940 in Saudi Arabia, who was at the center of the BCCI banking scandal in the mid-eighties. Mazen Rashad Pharaon is close to the Lybian Chief of State, the Colonel Muammar Kadhafi, who he helps in the transfer of arms…

The Pharaon brother’s fortune is essentially familial. Their father was an adviser to the founder of Saudi Arabia, the King Abd al-Aziz. He occupied many diplomatic posts in Europe between 1948 and 1954. Ghaith Pharaon was educated in Paris, Liban, Syria, Switzerland and then the United States, where he obtained an oil engineering degree. In the middle of the 1960s, he was introduced to a spy working for the Saudi secret services at the time, Kamal Adham, who introduced him to a founder of BCCI, Agha Hasan Abedi, with who he realized many investments and for who he helped coordinate some of the fraudulent operations including the repurchase of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) and that of Financial General Bankshares (FGB) before the bunkrupcy of BCCI in 1991. Kamal Adham directed one of Ghaith Pharaon’s businesses, Attock Oil. In 1996, Ghaith Pharaon ceded a part of his participation in BCCI to Khalid Salim Bin Mahfouz and his brother, who then became owners of 20% of that stock.

Ghaith Pharaon is wanted by the FBI for Fraud and on Racketeering charges in the United States. He is the subject of many indictments in New York, Washington D.C., Georgia and Florida as well as the Internal Revenue Service. One of the characteristic traits of the Saudi Binladin Group is to associate in the principle investments of controversial figures who play a large role in fraudulent activities around the world.

The Bank of New York-Inter Maritime Bank based in Geneva and directed by Bruce Rappaport has been implicated in the BCCI scandal and the sale of American arms to Iran (Irangate) as a partner of Oliver North, who was at the time in charge of the transfer of those weapons for the National Security Advisers.

Inter Maritime Bank’s Vice President at the time, Alfred Hartmann, born February 21, 1923 in Switzerland, was an ex-Director of the Banque of Commerce and Placements SA (BCP), an affiliate of BCCI and member of the Board of Directors of BCCI. BCP has notably participated in many fraudulent operations at BCCI. They reportedly had many specialized affiliates, in particular, the British company Inter Maritime Securities Underwriters Ltd., which became Inter Maritime Management SA, which shared the same address as the Bank.

The latter is affiliated to the Lebanese branch of the National Commerce Bank (Saudi Arabia) located in Beyrouth. This Saudi bank is directed by Khalid Bin Mahfouz, ex-director and shareholder of BCCI, under suspicion to have financed Osama bin Laden’s operations. (see part IV)

On May 19, 1980, SBG formed, in Switzerland, an investment affiliate named Cygnet SA, which became the Saudi Investment Company (SICO) in Geneva, with a base capital of 1 million Swiss Francs. SICO is directed by Yeslam Bin Laden, the brother of Osama Bin Laden.

His administrators are Baudoin Dunand, born on December 5, 1954 in Saint-Germain –en-Laye (France), Kjell Carlsson, born on March 7, 1951 in Ludvikh (Sweden), Frank Warren, Bruno Wyss, Charles Rochat, El Hanafi Tiliouine and Beatrice Dufour. Bruno Wyss also directs the automobile import-export company Sport-Garage Bruno Wyss in Zofingen in Switzerland. Beatrice Dufour, of Iranian descent, is the sister-in-law of Yeslam Bin Laden.

SICO (Saudi Investment Company) was set-up by Magnin, Dunand & Associates, a law outfit created in 1972, in Geneva by Baudoin Dunand, Jean-Jacques Magnin (born December 5, 1940 in Geneva), Otto-Robert Guth (born November 22, 1950 in Budapest) and Mohammed Mardem Bey (born October 19, 1962 in Damas, Syria).

The Saudi Investment Company has participated in many industries, among them the CI Group Plc (metal construction), Johnson Fry Holdings Plc (financial services), Starmin Plc (construction) – with Talal y Zahid & Bros and Ahmed Abdullah - , the Water Hall Group Plc (construction) – with Khereili Trading & Electronic – and Goldenash Ltd.

Besides these operations, SICO has made investments through the Nicris Ltd. company, located in Geneva, home of the Magnin, Dunand & Associates. The company is directed by Yahia Bin Laden, Vice President of the Saudi Binladin Group based in Djeddah.

The Nicris Ltd. company is a shareholder(18%) of the American pharmaceutical group Hybridon Inc., located in Massachusetts, directed by Eugene Andrews Grinstead, Sudhir Agrawal and Robert Andersen. In March 1998, Yahia Bin Laden controlled more than 7.5% of this American company.

Nicris Ltd. are equally a part of some other companies like Intercity Holdings (14%) parked in Bermuda, SEDCO in Djeddah (14%), Pillar SA – French company – (26%) and Faisal Finance Switzerland SA (7%).

In 1997, Hybridon Inc. proceeded to transfer $1.034 million into a bank account at Bank Fur Vermogensanlagen Und Handel (BVH BANK), registered in Dusseldorf in Germany, some months before the bankruptcy of that bank in November 1997 and the announcement of court proceedings for money laundering and embezzlement by the President, Dominique Santini, brother of ex-Minister (French) André Santini, with the procedure going to an international commission.

Dominique Santini is also an administrator at BAII Gestion, created in 1984, which handles deed transfers, and is an affiliate of “Banque Arabe and International Investment” – BAII – located at the same address. BAII was aligned heavily to BCCI. One of its shareholders had been the First Arabian Corp which the American Federal authorities brought to light in 1991 as being a part of BCCI’s attempt to fraudulently repurchase the American Financial General Bankshares by a group consisting of Kamal Adham, Faisal Al-Fulajj and Abdullah Darwaish.

The American authorities established that in 1985, Ghaith Pharaon was able to repurchase Independence Bank thanks to a loan gained with the use of a credit letter originating from BAII. Moreover, the President of BAII, Christian Lamarche, was one of the Board of Directors at BCCI.

Faisal Finance Switzerland SA is directed by Iqbal El Fallouji. It acts as a branch in the Islamic holding company Dar Al Maal Al Islami (DMI) SA seated at the same address in Switzerland. DMI is directed by the Prince Mohammed Al Faisal Al Saud.

The Saudi Economic and Development Company (SEDCO), based in Djeddah, Saudi Arabia, created in 1976, is an electronics distribution group headed by Mohammed Salim Bin Mahfouz, born on June 24, 1944 in Saudi Arabia. Its Board of Directors is familial and includes Khalid Salim Bin Mahfouz, Saleh Salim Bin Mahfouz, Abdullah Salim Bin Mahfouz and Ahmed Salim Bin Mahfouz.

Its principle affiliate, Al Khaleejia for Export, Promotion and Marketing Co. or Al Maddah Corp. located in Djeddah, is directed by Waleed Bin Mahfouz. This publicity company was created in 1977 and is under suspicion by the United States to have made donations to Osama Bin Laden.

Moreover, SEDCO is one of the principle stockholders of Binladin Telecommunications Company Ltd. (which became Baud Telecommunications) in Djeddah, directed by Saleh Bin Mahfouz.

Mohammed Salim Bin Mahfouz is the founder, with Mohammed Saleh Affara (born July 21, 1934 of British nationality) of the International Development Foundation (IDF) at Oxford, Great Britain.

There are many strange zones and alliances in the universe of companies owned by the Bin Laden Family. Their identification is often difficult to see due to the myriad of screen companies but a line seems to exist with many shady networks.

Yeslam Bin Laden created on July 7, 1998, in Geneva, an airline company named Avcon Business Jets Geneva SA, with a starting capital of 100,000 Swiss Francs. It was located at the same address as SICO. The company is an affiliate of Avcon AG, created in 1994 and located in Kloten, Switzerland. It is directed by watchmaker Sandro Arabian, born on March 3, 1941 in Geneva, who now resides in Monaco.

The administrators of Avcon Business Jets are Juerg Edgar Brand-Jud (Swiss), Alfred Muggli (Swiss) and the Unitreva Co. in Zurich. Juerg Edgar Brand-Jud is on the Board of Directors of many airline companies with Alfred Muggli. Unitreva AG, equally a stockholder in Avcon AG, is directed by Rolf Peter Fuchs.

Juerg Edgar Brand-Jud directs many companies, notably Eunet AG in Zurich as well as the following in Zug: Eurofloats AG, G5 Executive Holding AG, Heliz Air Services AG, Poseidon Derivatives AG, Premiere Beteiligunden Gmbh, Facto Treuhand AG, Grocor Group AG and Sky Unlimited AG.

Sandro Arabian controls many investment companies and real estate ventures in Switzerland as well as in France. The more active is Sogespa Finance SA in Neuchatel, presided over by Pierre-Alain Blum, born on July 31, 1945 in Neuchatel, Switzerland, who Claude-André Weber and the Agenda Holding & Look Holding SA are associated. In France, Sandro Arabian directs Parlook Holding in Nevers given the Board of Directors includes Michael Vauclair (born on May 29, 1947 in Rocourt, Switzerland) and Bruno Finaz (born on February 7, 1951 in Lyon, France). The holding company also controls Look Cycle SA in Nevers whose administrators include Pierre-Alain Blum (President of Sogespa Finance), Bruno Finaz and John Jellinek (born on May 30, 1945 in Chicago). The investments of Sandro Arabian also include audiovisual companies in Paris including SPAD (with Pierre-Alain Blum) and Simar Films. Many of these structures have disappeared today.

Sandro Arabian is also President of LK Holding in Nevers, in judicial liquidation since 1998. The company was directed by James Hamlin Mac Gee (born on September 20, 1940 in Salem, Dakota (U.S.). He was, from 1984 to 1986, in charge of foreign relations for the First Arabian Management Co. (FAMCO) located in Boulogne-Billancourt (France) which also had a British affiliate. The investment company was directed by Pierre Levine, born December 27, 1951 in Plessis-Robinson (France). First Arabian Co, whose stockholders were Abdullah Bin Musaid of Saudi Arabia and Salem Bin Laden, was directed by Roger Tamraz beginning in 1974, and was at the heart of the BCCI bank scandal. Roger Tamraz also made investments for Kamal Adham, one of the partners of Ghaith Pharaon and Khalid Bin Mahfouz.

James Hamlin Mac Gee is also an administrator of the Societé Occidental pour the Finance et l’Investissement (SOFIC) located in Neuilly-sur-Seine. It is a real estate investment company directed by Jean-Pierre Calzaroni (born on August 29, 1940 in Cambodia) and Peter Bunger (born on October 25, 1940 in Magdebourg in Switzerland).

The establishment of SICO is strange also..it’s offshore structures put in place by SBG in the Cayman Islands, Netherland’s Antilles and the British Isles. There were created by the cabinet in Geneva. They are SICO Curacao (Antilles), whose President is Yeslam Bin Laden and its administrators are Saleh Bin Laden, Beatrice Dufour and Charles Tickle; Falken Ltd. (Cayman Islands); Tropville Corp NV (Antilles); Islay Holdings (Islay Island). Charles Tickle is the CEO of the American real estate company Daniel Corp.

These intermediare structures permitted the creation of affiliates in the 1980s: Saudi Investment Co – SICO – (London) Ltd., created November 15, 1984, dissolved December 15, 1992; Saudi Investment Co – SICO – (UK) Ltd., registered in Bristol August 2, 1985, dissolved May 15, 1990; and SICO Services Ltd. seated at the same address as the first, registered September 27, 1985, dissolved December 19, 1989.

These intermediare structures have been progressively substituted by the investment company Russell Wood Holdings Ltd., an affiliate of Tropville Corp and of Falkan Ltd.. It is located at 30, Great Guildford Street in London. It was created on February 17, 1987. Hanofi Tiliouine (also on the Board of Directors of SICO in Geneva) and Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla (born April 9, 1949 in Tanzania) are two administrators.

Russell Wood Holdings Ltd. created, on June 9, 1987, an affiliate called Russell Wood Ltd., whose directors include Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla (director of the parent company), John Cyril Dorland Pilley (born on January 25, 1935 in Great Britain) and Seng Hock Yeoh (born on May 2, 1951 in Malaysia).

Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla had created on May 8, 1984 the Teqny Ltd. company with Sajjad Jiwaji (born on September 25, 1956 in Britain) as well as on April 30, 1985 the investment company Lonshare Nominees Ltd. parked in London.

Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla is also one of the directors of the Saudi Binladin International Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian affiliate of the Saudi Binladin Group whose President is Omar Bin Laden.

Russell Wood Ltd. succeeded to create a network of investment affiliates beginning in 1987: Globe Administration Ltd., created on October 29, 1987 in London, an affiliate of Islay Holdings whose director is Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla; Falcon Capital Management Ltd, created on May 9, 1988 in London (same address as Russell Wood), and directed by Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla; Falcon Capital Nominees Ltd. created on May 9, 1988 and whose director is Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla; Falcon Properties Ltd. in the Bahamas; Turkey Rock UK Ltd. (aka Tyrolese 350 Limited) created on February 20, 1996 in London, with one of the administrators being Leonard Cowking (representative of the Saudi Binladin Group in Europe); and Safron Advisors UK Ltd. (aka Tyrolese 359 Limited) created on May 17, 1996 in London, directed by Akberali Mohammed Ali Moawalla and Basil Mehdi Al Rahim (born on June 14, 1953, American).

The Tyrolese investment funds have a principle stockholder called the First Arabian Management Holding Ltd. registered in the Antilles. Its British affiliate First Arabian Management Co (UK) Ltd. is directed by Colin Granville Murray. The registration also mentions holdings by FAMCO SA (Saudi Arabia) and FAMCO Panama. FAMCO has had stock held by Salem Bin Laden and the Prince Abdullah Bin Musaid of Saudi Arabia.

What a mix of companies! One can possibly see how there might be troubling relationships between the networks of known criminals crossing into commercial relations considered normal as well as the structure which has been put in place in order to hide the movement of money.

The Bin Laden family does have a penchant for secrecy. This is perhaps one of the reasons for the longevity of its privileged relationship with the highest powers in the Saudi Kingdom. For sixty years, not one of the family “affairs” (the arrest of Mahrour Bin Laden at the end of the 1970s, their participation in the BCCI Scandal, up to the entrance of terrorism, of Osama Bin Laden) has succeeded in touching the family group.

An anecdote on that thought: A subcontractor of the familial group, after having given an interview to an economic journal in which he let slip key numbers of the group’s present condition, saw his contract purely and simply cancelled.

The Bin Ladens hold too much of their privileges to their security.

How can we legitimately support the idea that no relationship exists between the Bin Laden family and Osama Bin Laden, this same family that has economically supported, for many years, his brother-in-law, Khalid Bin Mahfouz, accused of having injected (up until these past few months) millions of dollars to support the activites of “terrorist” Osama Bin Laden? The members of this family are from the same generation, they sit on the same Boards of Direction, and share the same investments. How can the Saudi Arabian people ignore the very public actions of this very private family.

There exists inside the Kingdom of the Oil King a good which is widely spread out. They call it hypocrisy and the Saudis lap it up at the trough of the Occidentals.



From the Annex: The Carlyle Group

“The Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal, nephew of King Fahd, has an undetermined participation in the funds of the Carlyle Group and George W. Bush had been, from 1990 to 1994, a member of the Board of Directors of CaterAir, an affiliate of the Carlyle Group. Khalid Bin Mahfouz is indirectly aligned to George W. Bush due to Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, a Saudi investor and partner of Khalid Bin Mahfouz and Ghaith Pharaon, stockholders of Harken Energy (11%) in 1987. Talat Othman, born on April 27, 1936 in Betunia (Palestine) sat on the Board of Directors of that petrol company. George W. Bush was Director from 1986 to 1993. Talat Othman is a member of the American Middle East Policy Council along with Frank Carlucci. Lastly, James R. Bath, who represents the U.S. interests of Salem M. Bin Laden who, around the end of the 1970s, is invested in two companies held by George W. Bush (ARBUSTO 79 Ltd. and ARBUSTO 80 Ltd.) for a total amount of around $50,000. The two entities were fused with Harken Energy.”