|
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.
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’.
|
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.
According to NACTA Rahat Ltd was enlisted under
UNSCR 1267/189 and 1988 in November 2012. |
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. |
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. |
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.
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
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.
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’.
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.
He also mentioned that the Hawala was involved in
‘managing’ the illegal revenue gained by the Taliban
from their narcotics trade.
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.
·
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.
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.
|
|