A British Asian gang of fraudsters may have been involved in misusing billions of pounds amounting to £80million of British tax-payers money to fund terrorist networks like the Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to The Sunday Times.
Police and intelligence files as accessed by the media organisation, reveals that the gang which stole the money may have links to the 7/7 London bombings in which 52 people died - reportedly mounted VAT and benefit fraud against the Treasury.
Reports also suggest that part of the total money came from mortgage and credit card frauds that targeted banks and individuals. The gang, based in London, Buckinghamshire, Birmingham, north-west England and Scotland, is alleged to have sent one per cent of its gains from their elaborate tax fraud to Al-Qaeda where it funded madrasas, training camps and other terrorist activities.
“Secret intelligence held by MI5 states that some of the money reached the Pakistani compound that housed the Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden before US forces stormed it in 2011,” the newspaper reports as part of a two-year investigation.
An estimated £80 million is believed to have been funnelled out by the fraudsters as part of an elaborate VAT and benefits fraud against the UK’s revenue department over the past two decades. HMRC investigations also found links between the gang and 7/7 bombing terrorist Shehzad Tanweer two years before the 2005 attack.
The gang, made up of British men of Asian-origin who cannot be named due to court orders, reportedly infiltrated multiple UK government agencies and even corrupted local politicians. Mid-ranking gang members have been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for fraud and money laundering in a series of linked trials.
Some information was discovered on a discarded laptop found in Afghanistan by CIA and MI6 officers hunting for bin Laden in 2001.
