ED seeks Hasan Ali’s bank transaction details

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent fresh requests to three international banks seeking details of transactions in accounts maintained by Pune businessman Hasan Ali Khan.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent fresh requests to three international banks seeking details of transactions in accounts maintained by Pune businessman Hasan Ali Khan. The requests were made to two Swiss banks — UBS and Credit Suisse — and United Kingdom-headquartered Barclays Bank.

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A senior ED official said that the requests were made to the Indian representatives of these banks. “We will wait for their replies and accordingly decide the future course of action,” the officer said. The move came late last week after the ED questioned Khan, who was sent in their custody by the Supreme Court. Sources said that though Khan didn’t cooperate during questioning, the officials somehow managed to extract information from him that would help them in taking the probe further. “Using these leads we made fresh requests to these banks,” the officer said.

Khan is accused of acquiring and holding $8 billion (Rs36,000 crore) in the UBS bank. The ED also maintained that $0.7 million was transferred from Khan’s Sarasin bank account in Switzerland to the account of SK Financial Service, UK, maintained by Barclays Bank through Citibank, New York.

As per the ED case, Khan has one or more accounts in various Swiss banks like UBS Zurich, Credit Suisse, Credit Lyonnais (Suisse) SA Zurich and Sarasin.

Sources said that Khan refused to open up and kept saying that he does not have any account in any bank abroad and does not hold any black money. ED officials, however, got him talking by using his associate Kashinath Tapuriah’s name. Tapuriah, who was earlier questioned by the ED, made Khan accept a few details about the banking transactions. Khan said, “Now, I remember this.”

ED sources confronted him saying that he along with Tapuriah had approached officials of UBS, Credit Suisse, Credit Lyonnais (Suisse) and Sarasin.

Khan and others approached these officials after his (Khan’s) UBS account was frozen. The observation was made by UBS chief manager Dr Peter Weilly in 2001 after $300 million was transferred from Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi’s Chase Manhattan Bank account in New York to Khan’s UBS account. These bank officials were approached in an attempt to get the UBS account operational.