Tax fraud in Britain ‘funded’ Al-Qaeda: Report

London: An investigation by a leading media outlet has revealed that a network of British Asians stole billions of pounds of public money to fund terrorists. Tens of millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money was used to fund terrorists including the 7/7 London bombing network and Osama bin Laden through a UK-based scam that spanned two decades, the media reported on Sunday. A two-year investigation by The Sunday Times revealed the network stole billions of pounds of public money through VAT and benefit fraud, topping up their gains with mortgage and credit card fraud, The Telegraph reported.

One per cent on the group’s gains, 80 million pounds, was allegedly funnelled into Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with funds reaching the Pakistani compound stormed by US special forces in the 2011 operation to kill Bin Laden. The scale of the scam is breathtaking: the group netted around 8 billion pounds in public funds alone — almost triple the annual government expenditure on MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. A web of secrecy still binds this investigation, which was led by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Special Branch, and prevents the story from being told in full.

At least two years before the 7/7 attacks, HMRC identified ties between the gang defrauding the British public and Shehzad Tanweer, one of the terrorists involved. At the time, senior HMRC officials declined to use their intelligence to mount prosecutions and neutralise the gang. Court orders barring the identification of gang members convicted of fraud date back at least 10 years, and one customs official has claimed they were prevented from sharing intelligence with MI5 due to HMRC’s desire to keep tax records confidential. Following the money led investigators to successfully charge mid-ranking gang members with fraud and money laundering, leading to jail terms of more than 100 years for crimes that cost the taxpayer 100 million pounds. So far, no gang member has faced any terror charges. (IANS)

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