Name of Organization

Roshan Money Exchange (RMX)

Formation

No information is available about the initial formation of this money exchange company.

Leadership

Pakistani owner: Ahmed Shah Noorzai. 

Ahmed Shah Noorzai Obaidullah is the owner and chief operator of Roshan Money Exchange in Pakistan. His various aliases include Ahmad Shah, Ahmed Shah and Mohammed Shah. The titles that he uses include Haji, Maulavi, Maulawi and Mullah. He was born on the 1st January, 1985 in Quetta, Pakistan[1]. No other information about his origins is available. As of 26th February 2013, the United Nations Department of Treasury added Shah to the list of individuals associated with the Taliban who are deemed to ‘constitute a threat to the peace, security and stability of Afghanistan[2]’.

 

School of thought/ Classification

N/A

Ideology

N/A

Framework

Roshan Money Exchange is a Hawala, and uses informal networks of brokers to transfer funds from one location to another. Since these networks are informal, they can be used to avoid taxation and facilitate money laundering.

Status

  According to a Dawn News report Rahat Ltd has been proscribed by Government of Pakistan.[3] According to NACTA Rahat Ltd was enlisted under UNSCR 1267/189 and 1988 in November 2012.[4]

Financial resources

 

No information about the organization’s collective financial resources is known apart from the fact that its leader Ahmad Shah donated ‘large’ sums of money to the Taliban in the year 2011[5].

Recruitment tools & demographics

N/A

Connections & linkages

The Roshan Money Exchange is used by the Taliban to transfer funds and to expedite its narcotics trade in Afghanistan[6].

Areas of Operation

Quetta, Chaghi and Gardi Jungle in Balochistan Province, Pakistan and Helmand and Kandahar Provinces in Afghanistan.

Tools 

N/A

Name Variations

Roshan Sarafi, Roshan Shirkat, Roshan Trading Company, Rushaan Trading Company, Ahmad Shah Hawala, Haji Ahmad Shah Hawala, Maulawi Ahmad Shah Hawala, Mullah Ahmad Shah Hawala

 

Who they are

Roshan Money Exchange (RMX) is a money exchange house that operates primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It not only stores, but also transfers funds to support the operations and the narcotics trade of the Taliban in Afghanistan[7]. RMX is a Hawala, which is an informal system of value or money transfer. A Hawala operates outside of, or parallel to formal means of transferring funds. The system transfers funds from one place to another using brokers or service providers[8] who don’t use any formal promissory notes, but rely solely on trust.

Details about Roshan Money Exchange’s eleven branches that were operational in Afghanistan and Pakistan as of June 2012 were provided by the U.S. Department of Treasury in a press release[9]. These details are being reproduced here in their entirety.

RMX’s banned office branches that were operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan are:

In Pakistan:

Location:  Chohar Mir Road, Qandahari Bazaar, Quetta, Balochistan Province, Pakistan

§  Alt. Location:  Room #1, Abdul Sattar Plaza, Hafiz Saleem Street, Munsafi Road, Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan

§  Alt. Location:  Shop #3, Dr. Bano Road, Quetta, Pakistan

§  Alt. Location:  Office #3, Near Fatima Jinnah Road, Dr. Bano Road, Quetta, Pakistan

§  Alt. Location:  Kachara Road, Naserullah Khan Chawk, Quetta, Pakistan

§  Alt. Location:  Wazir Mohammad Road, Quetta, Balochistan Province, Pakistan

Location:  Gardi Jungle, Balochistan Province, Pakistan

Location:  Chaghi, Balochistan Province, Pakistan.

In Afghanistan:

Location: Safar Bazaar, Garm Ser District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

§  Alt. Location:  Main Bazaar, Safar, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

Location:  Money Exchange Market, Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

§  Alt. Location:  Haji Ghulam Nabi Market, Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

§  Alt. Location:  Lashkar Gah Bazaar, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

Location:  Hazar Joft, Garmser District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

Location:  Ismat Bazaar, Marjah District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

Location:  Zaranj, Nimruz Province, Afghanistan

Location:  Suite 8, 4th Floor, Sarafi Market, District 1, Kandahar City, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan

§  Alt. Location:  Floor 5, Shop 25, Kandahar City Sarafi Market, Kandahar District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan

Location:  Lakri, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

Location:  Aziz Market, in front of Azizi Bank, Waish Border, Spin Boldak District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan

History

No information is available about the initial formation of Roshan Money Exchange. In a press release published on the 29th of June, 2012, the U.S. Department of Treasury officially named two money exchange organizations in accordance with the U.S. government’s terrorism sanctions authority, Executive Order (E.O.) 13224 for ‘storing or moving money for the Taliban[10]’. One of these exchanges was the Roshan Money Exchange (RMX). The money was being used to fund the Taliban’s terrorism-related operations and their narcotics trade in Afghanistan. The Treasury’s Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David S. Cohen included Roshan Money Exchange in one of the two ‘key financial hubs’ that were supporting the Taliban[11]. He also mentioned that the Hawala was involved in ‘managing’ the illegal revenue gained by the Taliban from their narcotics trade[12].

This event coincided with a press release by the United Nations Security Council Committee on the 28th of June 2012, in which they explicitly listed Roshan Money Exchange “pursuant to paragraph 3 of resolution 1988 (2011) for ‘participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of’ and ‘otherwise supporting acts or activities of’ those designated and other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with the Taliban in constituting a threat to the peace, stability and security of Afghanistan[i]”. The purpose of the sanction against the Hawala is to hinder its business and thus cut sources of funding to the Taliban.

The organization has been actively transferring money since as early as 2008. Some known accounts of transactions are as follows:

·         RMX was used by a Taliban leader to transfer ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ to Afghanistan in 2008[13].

·         Money was collected from an RMX branch in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area by a Taliban leader in 2009. These funds were allegedly used to fund operations in Afghanistan.

·         In 2010, RMX was used by the Taliban to send funds to Herat and Helmand Provinces.

·         In 2011, there were multiple transactions through RMX; the branch in Lashkar Gah was used to transfer funds to Taliban commanders. The funds also included those gained from the Taliban’s opium trade[14].

Organization’s Message

Not available

Target Audience

Not available

Tools

Not available.

Splinter Groups

Not available.

Annexure

Taliban

The Taliban are a strict Islamist militant group which emerged in the early 1990s in the post-cold war era. The group took control of Kabul in 1996 and was the political leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Taliban gave refuge to the Al-Qaeda leaders after the 9/11 attacks after which the regime was toppled by the coalition of the US and Northern Alliance in October 2001. The group was reconstituted by Mullah Omar, the founder, and was relocated under the leadership council “Quetta Shura” in 2002.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

It is a South Waziristan (Pakistan) based conglomerate of various militant outfits. It demands Pakistan state’s disassociation from the coalition for war on terror.[15]


 

[1] Her Majesty’s (HM) Treasury, Financial Sanctions Notice. 17th October 2014

[2] U.S. Department of the Treasury, ‘Action Targets Financing Linked to a Designated Hawala and the Taliban Narcotics Trade’. Retrieved from: http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1863.aspx

[3] Haider.Irfan. February 11 2015.Pakistan’s banned organizations list to match UN blacklist. Dawn. Retrieved on 9th July 2015.Retrieved from http://www.dawn.com/news/1162733

[4] List of Terrorist Organizations. Government of Pakistan National Crisis Management Cell, Ministry of Interior. Retrieved on 9th July 2015.Retrieved from http://nacta.gov.pk/Download_s/__bannedOrgs.pdf

[5] Ibid.2

[6] Ibid.2

[7] UN Security Council, ‘Security Council 1988 Sanctions Committee Adds Two Individuals, Two Entities to Its Sanctions List. 2nd July 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/press/en/2012/sc10695.doc.htm

[8] El-Qorchi, Muhammed, ‘The Hawala System’. Retrieved from: http://www.gdrc.org/icm/hawala.html

[9] U.S. Department of the Treasury, ‘Treasury Targets Money Exchange Houses for Supporting the Taliban’. Retrieved from: http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1627.aspx

[10] Ibid.2

[11] Ibid.2

[12] UPI, ‘Money Exchange Targeted by Treasury’. 26th February 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/02/26/Money-exchange-targeted-by-Treasury/21231361913869/

[13] Ibid.2

[14] Ibid.2