Royal Bank of Scotland dealt with bin Laden Family accounts

YEREVAN, JUNE 23, ARMENPRESS. The Royal Bank of Scotland is reported to have ties with Osama bin Laden's family accounts, who is considered the world's number one terrorist. As reports "Armenpress", referring to The Wall Street Journal, this was informed by the German law enforcement authorities. German customs authorities have confiscated documents from a former unit ofRoyal Bank of Scotland showing that family members of the widespread Osama bin Laden clan were among its clients.

Some bin Laden family members are respected businesspeople, such as the owners ofSaudi Binladen Group, the largest construction company in Saudi Arabia.

RBS said that it didn't do business withOsama bin Laden.

"We didn't take care of Osama bin Laden's financials at any point of time, nor did we deal with his immediate relatives. His [Osama bin Laden's] personal finances were never of interest for [former RBS unit] Coutts International," the former RBS unit, the Edinburgh-based bank said.

German television network RTL reported on the documents, citing German newsweekly Focus, which broke the news earlier this weekend, suggesting there might be a link between the state-controlled British lender and the bin Laden family.

As part of the transaction, RBS shipped two containers with documents to Geneva from the Cayman Islands a couple of weeks ago, people familiar with the matter said. German customs officials at the Hamburg seaport opened those containers and searched the documents.German authorities have evaluated the findings in the last couple of weeks amid a broaderinvestigation into the banking industry. Authorities from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought several CDs with data on German clients of Switzerland-based banks to investigate potential tax evasion. The efforts by the state's prosecutors are controversial because the CDs had been stolen by individuals who then sold them to government authorities.

Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was killed late on May 2, 2011 by the U.S. special services in Abotabat city in the north-west of Pakistan (100 km from Islamabad), reports ITAR-TASS.