Human rights violators’ banks complicit with their clients?

We have thieves in power. This is a normal piece of information that wouldn’t surprise an Arab or an African. When didn’t we have thieves in power? Were we ever ruled by anyone else? This is a logical question. Generals and thieves, those who preach of religion and thieves, self-proclaimed advocates of democracy and thieves... It seems that being a thief qualifies you to quickly reach a high position.

They claim to be God fearing. Perhaps they really are religious and don’t skip a single prayer, but then they commit theft as they leave the mosque. Alaa Mubarak almost delivered the Friday sermon on Twitter, in response to what Ibrahim Issa said on the issue of the Isra and Mi’raj (the Prophet’s famed Night Journey), and the next day it was uncovered that he keeps millions and millions of dollars in Credit Suisse in Switzerland.

This isn’t really surprising. Since 2011, the Egyptian people have been very well aware that there are billions that have been stolen by the Mubarak family and those working with them.

A massive leak from one of the world’s largest private banks, “Credit Suisse”, has exposed the data of 18 thousand accounts; whose clients include criminals, fraudsters, corrupt politicians, and former officials who’ve been involved in torture, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and money laundering. And of course, they include Mubarak’s sons. When wasn’t the Mubarak family among the most notorious thieves in the world?

When didn’t we have thieves in power? Alaa Mubarak almost delivered a Friday sermon on Twitter, in response to a tweet on Isra and Mi’raj (the Prophet’s journey to space), the next day it was uncovered that he stashed millions of dollars in Switzerland

Alaa and Gamal Mubarak opened their first joint account in Credit Suisse in 1993. Over time, they came to own six accounts, one of which had a balance of about 196 million dollars in 2003. In 2010, the year before the January 25 revolution, the account balance owned by Alaa reached 188 million dollars. Hussein Salem, who worked as an economic advisor, owns several accounts, one of which amounted to $79.3 million in 2003. Omar Suleiman, a former intelligence chief and a close associate of the Mubarak family, has an account with a balance that reached $35 million in 2007.

The small number that had been revealed in one of the accounts of Gamal and Alaa Mubarak — using a simple calculation — would be enough to build 75,000 homes for Syrian refugee camps. These costs are based on the calculations of the charity organization Human Appeal.

The majority of people whose data was leaked from the Swiss bank hail from countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and South America. Whereas the depositors who reside in Europe constitute only 1% of the total, according to French newspaper “Le Monde”.

In response to the massive data leak, Credit Suisse issued a statement on Sunday, February 20, in which it rejected all allegations and insinuations about the bank’s alleged business practices. It stated that “the matters presented are predominantly historical” and are from the past, as if how old this data is absolves the bank of its crime! But then what about the present? Isn’t your present teeming with the accounts of rich thieves and filthy politicians?!

Credit Suisse has been embroiled in a number of scandals, including agreeing to pay $475 million US dollars to US and British authorities to settle an investigation into a bribery and kickback scheme in Mozambique involving a Lebanese crew. The Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona was also recently looking into a case where Credit Suisse was accused of allowing drug smugglers from Bulgaria to launder illegally acquired money and funds.

Figures state that somewhere between “50 and 300 billion dollars, or 5% of the global output, is laundered annually” with the help of these banks. According to the estimates of the French group Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP), 860 billion US dollars were laundered during 2002, with only 1% of the full amount discovered. In Switzerland alone, since 2016, banking institutions have reported 12 to 17 billion a year in “suspicious assets” to the liaison office responsible for money laundering cases, the Money Laundering Reporting Office-Switzerland (MROS).

The French newspaper Tribune de Genève revealed that several investigations that have been opened by the Zurich police show the extent of the looting committed by the Bolivarian regime. Investigators have identified suspicious cash flows and shady money transfers amounting to about 9 billion francs. According to information in the Geneva-based newspaper, the money was distributed among hundreds of accounts that were open in about 30 Swiss banks. Therefore, one out of every eight banks is involved in these crimes.

Aren’t these banks indirectly participating in every act of looting of the people’s wealth, and in every human rights violation, as long as they provide criminals, thieves, and drug dealers with banking services

Transparency International sees that the legal arsenal for combating money laundering is insufficient, and that too many banks do not honor “their due diligence obligations and do not fulfill their duty” to inform the authorities of their suspicions.

The question that comes to me, and one I believe is also on the minds of many whose money is stolen to be put in Swiss bank accounts: Aren’t the banks that hold the money of thieves, criminals, and human rights violators complicit in what their clients do? Aren’t these banks indirectly participating in every act of looting being done to the people’s wealth, and in every human rights violation, as long as they keep allowing criminals, thieves, and drug dealers to open secret accounts unchecked and under legal labels?

They are the same banks that allow criminals to open an account with interests that come from the blood of the people, while refusing to open an account for a refugee trying to start his life over. These banks are not violating the law according to their continuous series of statements, they are violating humanity. And sadly enough, these banks are based in countries that respect democracy and human rights — as if democracy was created for certain nations and peoples, but not for others…

* The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Raseef22