LONDON: A gang of fraudsters who stole an estimated £8 billion ($10.4 billion) from UK taxpayers allegedly used some of their gains to fund terror group Al-Qaeda and support Osama bin Laden, according to British intelligence reports revealed on Sunday.
After an investigation published by UK newspaper The Sunday Times, MI5 files allege that the gang used money made in a wide-reaching VAT and social welfare fraud to send around £80 million to the terror group in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Intelligence files revealed in the report also identified links between the gang and the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005, in which 52 people were killed and hundreds injured.
The Sunday Times investigation quoted MI5 intelligence, which alleges that money stolen from the British public funded training camps and, before his death in 2011, helped bin Laden hide after the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) carried out a years-long investigation into the gang and proved the gang had links to Shehzad Tanweer, one of the 7/7 terrorists, but did not disclose the information to MI5 in order to protect the “confidentiality of the terror suspect’s tax records,” the newspaper reported.
In a statement to The Sunday Times, HMRC said on Saturday: “We take our critical role in the fight against serious organized crime and terrorism very seriously.”
After the newspaper’s investigation, chairwoman of the UK’s public accounts committee Meg Hillier said she would consider launching a parliamentary inquiry and question Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary and national security adviser to prime minister Theresa May, about the findings on Monday.
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