BSH NEWS ‘SwissLeaks’: Former Pakistan top spy’s name features in leaked list of Credit Suisse account holders

Credit Suisse has denied allegations about its purported business practices | Reuters

Pakistan’s former top spy, General Akhtar Abdur Rehman Khan’s name, has featured in a list of high-profile Pakistanis with Swiss bank accounts.

The list was accessed by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung as part of ‘SwissLeaks’ – a massive leak from Credit Suisse, one of the world’s largest private banks. While the leaks cover Swiss bank accounts operational between the 1940s and 2010, it does not cover the current operations of Credit Suisse.

The leak has reportedly revealed information about 600 Swiss bank accounts linked to 1,400 Pakistani citizens.

READ: Credit Suisse on the defensive after leak about accounts holding over $100 billion

Among those featured in the list is General Akhtar Abdur Rehman Khan, the closest aide of former Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq. Both Khan and Haq died in a plane crash in 1988.

General Akhtar Abdur Rehman Khan helped funnel billions of dollars in cash and aid from the United States and other countries, as per a report by the New York Times. This money was then used to support Afghan mujahideen in their fight against the Soviet Union.

The report also reveals that an account was opened in Credit Suisse in the name of three of General Akhtar’s sons in 1985. “Years later, the account would grow to hold USD 3.7 million, the leaked records show,” it says, adding that the account was worth at least five million Swiss francs (USD 3.7 million) by 2003.

‘Swiss Leaks’

Media outlets with access to ‘Swiss Leaks’ data reportedly identified 30,000 Credit Suisse clients across the world. Swiss bank accounts in the names of these clients hold an estimated 100bn Swiss francs.

“We can reveal how Credit Suisse repeatedly either opened or maintained bank accounts for a panoramic array of high-risk clients across the world,” The Guardian said in a report.

The report goes on to add, “The huge trove of banking data was leaked by an anonymous whistleblower to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.”