US targets Lashkar founder, his business
WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department has imposed strict sanctions on a founding member of Lashkar-e-Taiba and has also banned the currency exchange business he owns.
In a statement issued in Washington, the US Treasury identified Muhammad Iqbal of Lahore as a founding member of the governing board of Lashkar-e-Taiba-affiliated Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation.
The US State Department has already declared the Foundation a Lashkar affiliate, which collects funds for the group.
Treasury said Mr Iqbal uses his business, Asma Money Exchangers, to conduct financial transactions on behalf of the Lashkar.
Asma Money Exchangers provides financial services to Lashkar-e-Taiba and serves as a conduit for financial donations to the group and its affiliates, the statement said.
The document noted that Asma Exchangers began working with Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2005 and in 2013 displayed donation boxes at its place of business for Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation.Mr Iqbal “exploited the trust placed in him as a financial intermediary to help LeT receive money through his business,” said David S. Cohen, US under-secretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
“Money service providers and other financial institutions must be careful gatekeepers, and keep terrorist money out of the international financial system.”
A document released by Mr Cohen’s office showed that in April 2013, Mr Iqbal informed customers that they could send money from Asma Money Exchangers to LeT front Jamaat-ud Dawa, which the State Department identified as an alias of LeT in April 2006. As of 2010, Mr Iqbal has also served as FIF’s Finance Secretary. In this role, Mr Iqbal shared responsibility along with six other FIF officers for approving new members of the group. Mr Iqbal and these six FIF officers were also responsible for identifying banks to hold FIF funds and endorsing, signing and delivering cheques, drafts and other money payment orders on behalf of FIF.
During this time, Mr Iqbal sent about $25,000 to LeT operations chief and SDGT Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and assisted LeT chief financial officer and SDGT Haji Muhammad Ashraf in sending money to an LeT associate.
Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014