TERRORIST FINANCE -- KUWAIT: FREEZING LAJNAT

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 001083 SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/ESC/ESP (GLASS) STATE FOR S/CT STATE FOR NEA/ARP AND NEA/RA STATE FOR IO/PHO (PEREZ) NSC FOR PETERS TREASURY FOR GENERAL COUNSEL AUFHAUSER TREASURY FOR OFAC DIRECTOR NEWCOMB TREASURY FOR TASK FORCE ON TERRORIST FINANCE E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/25/2013 TAGS: ETTC EFIN PTER PREL KU SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE -- KUWAIT: FREEZING LAJNAT AL-DAAWA AL-ISLAMIYYA REF: A. KUWAIT 921 AND PREVIOUS ¶B. STATE 71056 Classified By: Ambassador Richard Jones for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D) ¶1. (C) Ambassador met with Kuwaiti Central Bank (CBK) Governor Shaykh Salem AbdulAziz Al-Sabah on March 23 to review the status of freeze actions by the Central Bank against accounts of the Lajnat Al-Daawa Al-Islamiyya (LDI). The Governor confirmed local press reports that KD 1.4 million (nearly USD 4.6 million) had been seized, but said that represented only accounts in one institution. He said the CBK was still compiling the details of accounts in other financial institutions under CBK control to arrive at a final amount. Ambassador pressed the Governor to provide as many details about the accounts as possible, explaining that such information could prove invaluable to US and other investigators in "follow-the-money" type investigations relating to the financing of terrorism. ¶2. (C) On March 24, Ambassador also raised the LDI freeze issue with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shaykh Dr. Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, expressing appreciation for GOK steps to block the accounts. Per ref (B),the Ambassador also presented the MinState with a non-paper requesting additional information on the frozen accounts. Shaykh Dr. Mohammad said he would see what could be done to provide the requested information, but noted that LDI had a U.S. auditor (Baker and McKenzie) that should already have access to such information. JONES