WASHINGTON: Osama Bin Laden, slain Al-Qaeda Chief wanted to secure finances in the form of gold and foreign currency, documents have revealed.
The New York Times reported that OBL had directed his workers to buy gold, Euro, Kuwaiti Dinar and Chinese Yen from the money obtained through kidnapping for ransom.
In 2010 Bin Laden wrote a letter to Al Qaeda manager Atiya Abdur Rehman where he instructed him to buy gold from a reliable broker in Peshawar, the CIA revealed.
In the letter he predicted that gold prices will rise in the coming years. “If need arises sell foreign currency first. Leave gold till the very end,” he wrote.
The letter was confiscated during the Navy Seals operation in Abottabad.
Bin Laden predicted that gold prices will rise to $3000 per ounce. His financial acumen proved wrong. Gold prices did rise, but only to $1900 per ounce.
Like Al Qaeda, other militant groups have wrestled with how to avoid the reach of the Treasury and international blacklists. Their wealth management strategies have varied, and some have proved more adept at making money than investing it, the report added.