Saudi national slips a cool trillion through U.S. banking system

On Sept. 28 during Congress’s third hearing on terrorist financing this year, (the last one focusing on the alleged “chilling effect” of Treasury’s policies on Islamic charities) attorney Eric Lewis testified regarding “one of the largest abuses ever of the United States banking system.” 

In the video below, Mr. Lewis begins by saying, “The fraud and money laundering scheme that I’d like to discuss involves the transfer of approximately $1 trillion through the United States financial system all directed by a single Saudi national named Maan Al-Sanea using a Saudi Arabian remittance company, or hawala, called the Money Exchange…”

Billions of opaque hawala dollars transferred on behalf of unknown Saudi customers raise no red flags.  Meanwhile the Obama administration wants to start forcing banks to report on customers who transfer twenty bucks overseas.  That makes sense!

Lewis’s full written testimony is available here.  Lewis also represents the prominent Algosaibi family which has an ongoing family/financial feud with the Al-Sanea family, but his testimony comes across as very credible nonetheless.

An unknown portion of the money “might have ended up with Islamic insurgents.”  Although Lewis doesn’t mention it by name, the U.S. bank in question is Bank of America, which denies the charges.  The testimony has received very limited press coverage, but the BBC has an article about it here.