Posted 5/15/2003 1:56 AM
People with link to Saddam sought
By Edward Iwata, USA TODAY
Private investigators and U.S. officials are looking at more than 15 key figures believed to have financial ties to Saddam Hussein, including :
• The half-brother. Many of Saddam’s front companies were set up by his half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, former head of Iraq’s Mukhabarat secret service and Iraq’s former ambassador to Switzerland, investigators say.
One of the « most wanted » former Iraqi leaders on U.S. soldiers’ playing cards, Barzan was captured recently in Iraq.
« He can name names and detail the scope of the operation, » says Nicholas Peck, a partner at Gryphon Investigations, who has researched Iraqi assets.
• The British billionaire. Nadhmi Auchi, a 65-year-old London businessman born in Iraq, was part owner of a small bank that laundered « dirty money, » according to a private 1996 report by the former Belgium ambassador in Luxembourg.
At one point, the bank — Banque Continentale du Luxembourg — held deposits made by Saddam and other dictators, including Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, the report alleges. In European media reports, Auchi has denied knowing Saddam.
The financier has run into legal troubles since moving to Great Britain two decades ago.
Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.