Hasan Ali front man of arms dealer Khashoggi: ED

Mumbai, May 7: International arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi had helped Hasan Ali Khan open his account with UBS, Zurich, to use it to launder tainted money and for the Pune stud farm owner CHF (Swiss currency) 28.5 million was "petty cash" to buy a hotel in Switzerland.

Khan was acting as a "front man" for Khashoggi, a persona-non-grata in Switzerland, and Pune stud farm owner's UBS account was used to park the arms dealer's money. Charge sheet filed on Friday, May 6 runder Prevention of Money Laundering Act by the Enforcement Directorate against Khan and Kolkata businessman Kashinath Tapuriah.

The 950-page document quotes Tapuriah as having told them that Khashoggi had introduced Khan to the bank in 1982 and that the Kolkata businessman learnt from the manager of UBS Reto Hartmann that money deposited belonged to the arms dealer, who might have instructed Peter Weily, a former UBS employee and his portfolio manager, not to allow Khan to withdraw any amount above a particular limit.

Tapuriah also told the ED officials that once Khan had shown him the statement of account in 2005-2006 in Zurich having a balance of USD 2 bilion. Tapuriah told his interrogators that Khan had revealed to him the code to operate the account which was "Black Prince".

It was on Peter Weily's recommendation that Khan had effected the transfer of USD 300 million to Khashoggi's account temporarily which the latter had returned to Khan''s UBS account. Khashoggi's account in the US from where the money was returned to Khan was later identified as tainted money following which Khan'' account was blocked by UBS.

PTI