Ex-spymaster Gen Akhtar, sons named in new ‘Suisse Secrets’ leak

Report says Gen Zia’s spy chief helped funnel billions of dollars from US to mujahedeen in Afghanistan in 1980s

General Akhtar Abdur Rahman – known as the architect of Afghan war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan during Gen Ziaul Haq era – is among those named in a new extraordinary leak of secret banking data dubbed as “Suisse Secrets”.

The leaked data from Credit Suisse, one of the world’s most iconic banks, has exposed how the bank held hundreds of millions of dollars for heads of state, intelligence officials, sanctioned businessmen and human rights abusers, among many others, according to a report published in The New York Times on Sunday.

A self-described whistle-blower leaked data on more than 18,000 bank accounts, collectively holding more than $100 billion, to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper shared the data with a nonprofit journalism group, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and 46 other news organisations around the world, including The New York Times.

The data covers accounts that were open from the 1940s until well into the 2010s but not the bank’s current operations.

The account holders included sons of a Pakistani intelligence chief who helped funnel billions of dollars from the United States and other countries to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

As the head of the Pakistani intelligence agency, General Akhtar helped funnel billions of dollars in cash and other aid from the US and other countries to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan to support their fight against the Soviet Union, said the NYT report.

Also read: New $100 billion ‘Suisse Secrets’ leaked

In 1985, the same year US President Ronald Reagan called for more oversight of the aid going into Afghanistan, an account was opened in the name of three of General Akhtar’s sons. However, the general never faced charges of stealing aid money, the report added.

Years later, the account would grow to hold $3.7 million, the leaked records show.

Two of the general’s sons, Akbar and Haroon Khan, did not respond to requests for comment from the reporting project.

In a text message, a third son, Ghazi Khan, called information about the accounts “not correct,” adding, “The content is conjectural”.

However, a report published by OCCRP said in the late 1970s, the US backed seven different factions of fighters called the mujahideen who were battling Russia’s presence in Afghanistan.

US funding to the jihadists often transferred to the CIA’s Swiss bank account. “The end recipient in the process was Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), led by Akhtar,” it added.

By the mid-1980s, Akhtar was adept at getting CIA cash into the hands of Afghan jihadists. It was around this time that Credit Suisse accounts were opened in the names of his three sons, the report claimed.

The OCCRP report said one of the two Akhtar family accounts at Credit Suisse — held jointly by Akhtar’s sons Akbar, Ghazi, and Haroon — was opened on July 1, 1985, when the sons were in their late 20s and early 30s.

That same year, US President Ronald Reagan would raise concerns about where the money intended for the mujahideen was going. By 2003, this account was worth at least five million Swiss francs ($3.7 million at the time).

A second account, opened in January 1986 in Akbar’s name alone, was worth more than 9 million Swiss francs by November 2010 ($9.2 million at the time).

In a message to OCCRP, Ghazi Khan called information presented by reporters about the family’s Swiss accounts “not correct”, and said it was “denied” but did not elaborate.