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Danish companies implicated in fraud schemes to finance terror in Syria
TheCopenhagenPost
January 25th, 2016
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This article is more than 8 years old.
The network is suspected of having defrauded the Danish state of 30 million kroner in VAT
A number of Danish companies with connections to terror organisations have defrauded the Danish state of 30 million kroner in moms (VAT), DR reports.
One of the companies implicated is Q Transport ApS, which imported large quantities of chicken from the Netherlands to Denmark and subsequently left the Danish tax authority with 3 million kroner unpaid in taxes and private creditors with claims of 6 million kroner.
Abdessamad Fateh was a director of the company. Until his death last year, he was on the radar of international intelligence organisations as a suspected Islamic extremist. According to Magnus Ranstorp, a Swedish terrorism researcher, he was a preacher at the Grimhøj mosque in Aarhus from 2008 to 2013.
Connections to the war in Syria
The US State Department, the country’s foreign ministry, added Fateh to its terror lists after he reportedly travelled to Syria to take part in fighting.
“We have witnessed Abdessamad Fateh having access to large sums of money. But that is not the primary reason why he has been put on our terror lists. It is first and foremost his connections to the Scandinavian network of people with connections to Al-Qaeda,” a spokesman from the US State Department told DR.
Ranstorp has worked with the Swedish authorities to research how Islamic extremists are financing the war in Syria, and his studies show that the money often comes from the dealings of a network of companies.
“The principle is that everyone should contribute and help the common cause and the more money you generate, the higher the status and position you get down there,” he said.
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