Meet Rahim Ghouse. He's the frontline defender of Malaysia's imprisoned former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Rahim: These letters, I mean, you're still in touch with Anwar? Yeah, I'm still in touch. A few weeks, through his lawyers.
Indeed it's Ghouse's commitment to Anwar Ibrahim that led him to Melbourne, where he's become the self-proclaimed frontman for the International Free Anwar Campaign.
Rahim: Anwar stands for a just cause. Right? He made his sacrifices. He was prepared to go in prison to stand for his principles.
ANWAR IBRAHIM: Relax, relax.
Anwar Ibrahim was arrested in September 1998 and initially detained under the nation's Internal Security Act.
Rahim: The night before he was arrested, he spoke to me. He called me and he mentioned to me that "Do not get caught. "I can't afford you to get caught. "Do whatever it takes if things go wrong." So that's what he told me and that was where I made the decision to leave the country and to continue the campaign and struggle to free Anwar.
Rahim Ghouse was granted a business visa to Australia three years ago. But in addition to campaigning for Anwar Ibrahim's release, Dateline has discovered that Ghouse was also a director and a principal shareholder in a private company that has rung alarm bells in the US. DOOR SLAMS SHUT One of his fellow directors has been named by authorities in America, Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore and by the UN as a suspected terrorist. To find out how Rahim Ghouse is connected to all of this, we must first of all take a closer look at the man he now champions, Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar:I now challenge these spineless conspirators who are bored with oppressing the weak yet terrified of the wrath of the people. I challenge them now to do their worst and bring me to court.
Back in 1998, Anwar Ibrahim's arrest was considered nothing more than a power struggle between the ambitious deputy and the Prime Minister of 22 years, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Mahathir: I mean, sure there are a few thousand people following him but the vast majority of 22 million people living in this country are quite happy as they are.
Malaysia's Prime Minister raised allegations about his deputy's links to hardline Muslim fundamentalists, but in the lead-up to his trial, this received little attention. There were far more sensational allegations to contend with.
Mahathir: They had not only performed sodomy, but during the process, he was doing - he was, I don't know what you call it, he was masturbating this man.
But Anwar's religious links have become a matter of great interest. Although Malaysia is a secular state, Islam's hold on society is strong. In the post September 11 world, concern is now being raised about Malaysia and its place in the terrorist picture.
Lim Kit Siang: I think especially after the September 11 terrorist attacks, terrorism has become a concern not only globally, but also in countries where it seems to have considerable networks and connections and Malaysia features in this international network.
Rita Katz: Yeah, I think that Malaysia is becoming a very important country in future funding for Islamist operations. Look, we know, for instance, that Hambali was associated with Malaysia. We know that a lot of al-Qa'ida leaders are coming now from Malaysia. Malaysia turned to be an easy place for al-Qa'ida to fulfil their activities. Rita Katz is one of America's foremost counter-terrorism experts. She is credited with going undercover to expose radical Islamic groups operating in the US. The executive director of the SITE institute, or Search for International Terrorist Entities, Katz does consultancy work for the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. Malaysia first came to her attention when the name of one high-profile public figure kept appearing as she attempted to unravel the tentacles of global terrorism. And that man was Malaysia's one-time deputy prime minister.
Rita Katz: Anwar Ibrahim. REPORTER: Why? Rita Katz: Because Anwar Ibrahim is associated with some of the organisations in the US that are subject of huge, huge investigation. One of those organisations is the International Institute of Islamic Thought. It's accused of funding the Islamic Jihad. The institute was directed by Taha al-Alwani, an Iraqi who also founded the Muslim World League, another group whose assets were frozen by the US Government because of its links to terror. In a raid last year on the charity's office, documents were uncovered which listed Malaysia's former deputy prime minister as a one-time board member and contributor to the institute's quarterly journal. More recently, as these documents show, his daughter, Nurul Izah, became the recipient of a substantial scholarship, which would more than fund her university studies in Malaysia. Lim Kit: Well, it's news to me completely. I never heard of it. My immediate reaction is "Is it true? Because I would like to verify such information and if it is true, then of course it is a matter - it is very serious but the fact is it true and unless they can be verified, I think it's not fair to make any comments. I do have the documents, I do have the official records of that saying that. What does this say about the need for transparency? Well, I think absolutely there's no doubt that the tentacles of global, worldwide are multifarious and the need for a very transparent approach to this problem, but I'm very interested to know, after the event, all those facts, I will have a look at it and I will ask Anwar and Azzizah the truth of it. Malaysia's one-time heir apparent to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir is currently behind bars, convicted of misuse of power. He's not due for release until April 14, 2009 at the earliest. As American investigators delved into documents, their attention moved from Anwar Ibrahim to a Saudi businessman with extensive financial interests in Malaysia. We were never engaged in helping any terrorist group. And this man, Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi, came into his sights. Rita Katz: When I say the word or the name Yassin al-Kadi, Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi, in the US, red lights are everywhere. People know that if his name is associated, then we're going to see some bad stuff there. He first came to FBI attention in the mid-1990s. Former FBI agent John Vincent headed up one of the earliest investigations into the Saudi businessman. At the time, Yassin al-Kadi was accused of funding Palestinian militants through companies he established in the States.
John Vincent: There was some money that came into the United States and we determined it came from Yassin al-Kadi. And that transfer took place in 1991, late 1991, and the money was then used as more or less seed money to propel or gain more money to be sent overseas.
Evidence was gathered and links unravelled showing funds from one of the Sheikh's companies directed to the hardline Palestinian organisation Hamas in the Middle East. But no action was taken. Is terrorist. That's terrorists. This is terrorists. That all changed after September 11, 2001. Bush: I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people... CROWD CHEERS ..and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. CROWD CHEERS (All chant: USA, USA) One month after America was shaken to the core by the most devastating terrorist attack on home soil, Yassin al-Kadi was added to the United States's list of designated terrorists. Rita Katz says it was for one reason. Rita Katz: Because funding terrorism, you cannot be designated if you do not fund terrorism, if there is no evidence that you are funding terrorism. We know that one small detail that contributed to his designation was the fact that he funded an al-Qa'ida member, that was tied to the embassy bombing and other terrorist attacks. He didn't deny the fact that he did give a cheque of I think $500,000 to the organisation. Other than that, his companies in the US were funding Mussa Abu Marzouk, who was the head of Hamas, and some other dirty activities that are still very much under investigation. In Malaysia, the alarm bells were beginning to ring for the Sheikh was no stranger here. This house in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, is where Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi once called home. It's prime property in what's known as the capital's 'golden triangle'. It was this address the Saudi businessman gave when he was granted permanent residency or PR, by the Malaysian Government, much to the amazement of those who knew who he was. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang read about Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi's business connections in Malaysia and wondered what Malaysia was doing to prevent terrorist activity fomenting on home soil. Lim Kit: Oh, yes, I was shocked, I think all Malaysians. As I said, the Malaysians read about all these terrorist links, activities affecting Malaysia from foreign publications and it is definitely shocking to Malaysians and to the people in the world and it is something which we do not want to see. Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi was given permanent residence of Malaysia. How easy is it for an outsider to get permanent residency here? For some people it can be very easy, for some people it can be very difficult. We have Hambali, we have the various alleged-to-be kingpins of Jemaah Islamiah who were involved in the various bombing blasts in Indonesia, many of them have PR. In the case of Hambali, who was supposed to be the right-hand man or the Osama bin Laden of Asia, his permanent residence status was only withdrawn after his arrest in Ayuthya, Thailand. Rita Katz: I can't understand why the Malaysian will give Yassin al-Kadi permanent residence after he was designated by the US Government, after they know that he was named with terrorism connections, after they know that he was named by the US Government as bin Laden's financier. I can't understand why they would do that, AND especially that I think the Malaysian Government is very much aware of the fact that a lot of Islamists are using this country, Malaysia, to fulfil their agenda and they're trying to make it more radical. Investigators in the United States, both government and private, were now looking closely at Yassin al-Kadi. As they sifted through a mountain of corporate, financial and banking documents, the reach of his financial tentacles began to emerge. The US Government accused al-Kadi of moving millions of dollars from Saudi sources. The US says some of that money, although how much remains unknown, ended up in the hands of terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. Rita Katz: We're trying to uncover all his companies and to understand more about the way it operated, because for instance, one of the important companies that he established, or he was a main investor, is Ptech, which is a computer company that sells special databases and the clients are the US Government. It's the IRS, it's the FAA, it's the White House, it's the FBI, it's the State Department, however at the same time, he's already named and designated as bin Laden's financier. Ptech is an American company and is not linked to companies in Australia of the same name. Now Dateline has uncovered a financial link between Saudi Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi's business network to none other than a certain Melbourne-based Malaysian businessman, Rahim Ghouse. Rahim: Both are principal shareholders and one-time directors in the same private company, based in Kuala Lumpur, Abrar International. The third director and the man who brought al-Kadi and Ghouse together is another Malaysian businessman, Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman. Stories of Wan Hasni's rags-to-riches success as a precocious student financial whiz are proudly displayed on Abrar's web page. Abrar's core business was touted as financial services with the company applying the Islamic Sharia as its guiding beacon in promoting Islamic banking and finance. When Wan Hasni went looking for investors for Abrar, he went to the Middle East. He says he met Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi in 1993 or '94. Wan Hasni: I've been running in and out of the Middle East since the mid-1980s, yeah, because I was then a student leader in the United States and so we happened to meet a lot of the Middle Eastern people. So in the '90s, in '93 in particular when I started Abrar and so on in Malaysia, so I went to Middle East a few times and met many people there all over the place, in Kuwait, in Emirates, in Oman, as well as Saudi Arabia. So in one of the trips to Saudi Arabia, one of my Saudi friends introduced me Yassin al-Kadi, I believe it was late '93, if I'm not mistaken. If not, then must be in early '94. For him maybe it was a small amount of money, yeah, so it doesn't seem that it's that hard for him to do so and especially we are involved in the area of finance and in particular, the special focus on Islamic banking and finance.
REPORTER: A small amount of money, how much did he invest? 24 million ringgit, roughly about that. Yeah, less than US$10 million at that time, yes, the exchange rate was 2.5 ringgit per dollar. REPORTER: When you met him, what did you think of him? Well, he's a kind man. That's my personal impression of him. Very soft, very soft spoken, very polite and a pleasant personality. Wan Hasni was now in business, very big business. But he still needed another partner for the venture. Enter Rahim Ghouse, the defender of the man once tipped to become Malaysia's next prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. Ghouse was a friend of Wan Hasni, such a good friend that Wan Hasni lent him some of the money he needed to become a principal shareholder. Wan Hasni: Rahim Ghouse, he put part of the money, I lent part of the money to him. Wan Hasni was by far the biggest shareholder, owning more than 50% of the total stock in Abrar International. Between them, Rahim Ghouse and Yassin al-Kadi took up the rest of the shares. For his part, Rahim Ghouse does not deny his business dealings with a man accused of funding terrorism and whose assets have been frozen by government decree in the United States and the UK. REPORTER: Abrar International, your partners in that, Dr Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman, Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi. Do you know these men well? Yeah, I know them. Yeah, I know them. How would you describe them? As close friends? Yeah, they are businessmen. Yeah, they are involved in business, they're heavily involved in business. They are close associates of yours? Yeah, they are. Dr Wan is a close associate with me. Yassin, I met him in Malaysia in 1960 - I'm sorry 1995 or 1996. Yeah, when he want to make some form of investments in Malaysia. He's now on the US and the UK on the wanted list as someone who has funded Osama bin Laden, who has terrorist links. Do you think that your dealings with him, do you still have dealings with him? No, at the moment I don't have any more dealings with him. Since I left the country in 1998, I left all these matters to Dr Wan Hasni on all the matters of Abrar, so I don't have anymore links with him. When did you last speak with him? Years ago, I couldn't remember. A number of years ago. Wan Hasni also says communication between he and the Sheikh has ended. REPORTER: Have you spoken to Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi about the accusations made against him? When did you last speak with him? I have not been in communication with him, speaken to him or whatever, since 1998. Why not? Well, we had a big quarrel in 1998 after the economic crisis and the company went into crisis then and so after that, we had a big quarrel, I mean a big disagreement so after that then I walked my way, he walked his way and we never really communicate, yeah. Of course his accountants do came here, check the companies and whatever, and go back to report to him. Yeah. But you've not spoken to him since then? No, no, and after the announcement of September 11 issues and whatever I also I never spoken to him. While both men say they have not spoken directly to the Saudi Sheikh for some years, it was in April this year that Wan Hani resigned as a director of Abrar International. Rahim Ghouse has also resigned, although it appears he failed to notify Malaysia's Registrar of Companies, as is required by law. But both men remain Abrar International's principal shareholders. As mere shareholders their responsibility for their company's activities has diminished. Authorities in the United States are no longer interested in just Yassin al-Kadi. Dateline has learnt that they are now looking at his associates and the companies in which they invested. Abrar's business dealings with Global Chemicals America, a household chemical producer, is just one example of why authorities are keen to pursue these financial trails. As this 1997 FBI application for a search warrant details, Global Chemicals was suspected of fraud and money laundering. The Chicago Fire Department wanted to know why the company was stockpiling dangerous chemicals. One of the company's directors had since been jailed after being found guilty of money laundering. The company is no longer trading. Rita Katz believes Wan Hasni should well be nervous. REPORTER: He's a person of concern? To me, very much. Why? I don't think Yassin al-Kadi would have worked with people who he doesn't trust. Wan Hasni agreed to be interviewed by Dateline in Kuala Lumpur but he brought along back up. REPORTER: You have brought your associates with you and you've recorded this whole interview. Yeah. Why? Well, I want to have also this interview on my record and I want to keep it for my personal opinion. You're nervous? No, not nervous, never nervous. That's not really the work of a non-nervous man. (Laughs) Well, I don't know you, I don't know SBS, I don't know what Australia is, as I told you, I don't know what your agenda, yeah, so as well as I think anybody who don't know what other people's intentions are, then you just want to be safe. Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi has tried without success to remove his name from the UN suspected terrorist list and to unfreeze his funds. Singapore is the most recent nation to label the Saudi businessman a terrorist. While under the UN resolution, it is an offence to have any business or financial dealings with anyone or any organisation on that list, Australian authorities would not confirm or deny whether they are investigating either of his Malaysian business partners.
Rita Katz: Yeah, I think that Malaysia is becoming a very important country in future funding for Islamist operations. Look, we know, for instance, that Hambali was associated with Malaysia. We know that a lot of al-Qa'ida leaders are coming now from Malaysia. Malaysia turned to be an easy place for al-Qa'ida to fulfil their activities. Rita Katz is one of America's foremost counter-terrorism experts. She is credited with going undercover to expose radical Islamic groups operating in the US. The executive director of the SITE institute, or Search for International Terrorist Entities, Katz does consultancy work for the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. Malaysia first came to her attention when the name of one high-profile public figure kept appearing as she attempted to unravel the tentacles of global terrorism. And that man was Malaysia's one-time deputy prime minister.
Rita Katz: Anwar Ibrahim. REPORTER: Why? Rita Katz: Because Anwar Ibrahim is associated with some of the organisations in the US that are subject of huge, huge investigation. One of those organisations is the International Institute of Islamic Thought. It's accused of funding the Islamic Jihad. The institute was directed by Taha al-Alwani, an Iraqi who also founded the Muslim World League, another group whose assets were frozen by the US Government because of its links to terror. In a raid last year on the charity's office, documents were uncovered which listed Malaysia's former deputy prime minister as a one-time board member and contributor to the institute's quarterly journal. More recently, as these documents show, his daughter, Nurul Izah, became the recipient of a substantial scholarship, which would more than fund her university studies in Malaysia. Lim Kit: Well, it's news to me completely. I never heard of it. My immediate reaction is "Is it true? Because I would like to verify such information and if it is true, then of course it is a matter - it is very serious but the fact is it true and unless they can be verified, I think it's not fair to make any comments. I do have the documents, I do have the official records of that saying that. What does this say about the need for transparency? Well, I think absolutely there's no doubt that the tentacles of global, worldwide are multifarious and the need for a very transparent approach to this problem, but I'm very interested to know, after the event, all those facts, I will have a look at it and I will ask Anwar and Azzizah the truth of it. Malaysia's one-time heir apparent to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir is currently behind bars, convicted of misuse of power. He's not due for release until April 14, 2009 at the earliest. As American investigators delved into documents, their attention moved from Anwar Ibrahim to a Saudi businessman with extensive financial interests in Malaysia. We were never engaged in helping any terrorist group. And this man, Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi, came into his sights. Rita Katz: When I say the word or the name Yassin al-Kadi, Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi, in the US, red lights are everywhere. People know that if his name is associated, then we're going to see some bad stuff there. He first came to FBI attention in the mid-1990s. Former FBI agent John Vincent headed up one of the earliest investigations into the Saudi businessman. At the time, Yassin al-Kadi was accused of funding Palestinian militants through companies he established in the States.
John Vincent: There was some money that came into the United States and we determined it came from Yassin al-Kadi. And that transfer took place in 1991, late 1991, and the money was then used as more or less seed money to propel or gain more money to be sent overseas.
Evidence was gathered and links unravelled showing funds from one of the Sheikh's companies directed to the hardline Palestinian organisation Hamas in the Middle East. But no action was taken. Is terrorist. That's terrorists. This is terrorists. That all changed after September 11, 2001. Bush: I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people... CROWD CHEERS ..and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. CROWD CHEERS (All chant: USA, USA) One month after America was shaken to the core by the most devastating terrorist attack on home soil, Yassin al-Kadi was added to the United States's list of designated terrorists. Rita Katz says it was for one reason. Rita Katz: Because funding terrorism, you cannot be designated if you do not fund terrorism, if there is no evidence that you are funding terrorism. We know that one small detail that contributed to his designation was the fact that he funded an al-Qa'ida member, that was tied to the embassy bombing and other terrorist attacks. He didn't deny the fact that he did give a cheque of I think $500,000 to the organisation. Other than that, his companies in the US were funding Mussa Abu Marzouk, who was the head of Hamas, and some other dirty activities that are still very much under investigation. In Malaysia, the alarm bells were beginning to ring for the Sheikh was no stranger here. This house in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, is where Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi once called home. It's prime property in what's known as the capital's 'golden triangle'. It was this address the Saudi businessman gave when he was granted permanent residency or PR, by the Malaysian Government, much to the amazement of those who knew who he was. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang read about Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi's business connections in Malaysia and wondered what Malaysia was doing to prevent terrorist activity fomenting on home soil. Lim Kit: Oh, yes, I was shocked, I think all Malaysians. As I said, the Malaysians read about all these terrorist links, activities affecting Malaysia from foreign publications and it is definitely shocking to Malaysians and to the people in the world and it is something which we do not want to see. Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi was given permanent residence of Malaysia. How easy is it for an outsider to get permanent residency here? For some people it can be very easy, for some people it can be very difficult. We have Hambali, we have the various alleged-to-be kingpins of Jemaah Islamiah who were involved in the various bombing blasts in Indonesia, many of them have PR. In the case of Hambali, who was supposed to be the right-hand man or the Osama bin Laden of Asia, his permanent residence status was only withdrawn after his arrest in Ayuthya, Thailand. Rita Katz: I can't understand why the Malaysian will give Yassin al-Kadi permanent residence after he was designated by the US Government, after they know that he was named with terrorism connections, after they know that he was named by the US Government as bin Laden's financier. I can't understand why they would do that, AND especially that I think the Malaysian Government is very much aware of the fact that a lot of Islamists are using this country, Malaysia, to fulfil their agenda and they're trying to make it more radical. Investigators in the United States, both government and private, were now looking closely at Yassin al-Kadi. As they sifted through a mountain of corporate, financial and banking documents, the reach of his financial tentacles began to emerge. The US Government accused al-Kadi of moving millions of dollars from Saudi sources. The US says some of that money, although how much remains unknown, ended up in the hands of terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. Rita Katz: We're trying to uncover all his companies and to understand more about the way it operated, because for instance, one of the important companies that he established, or he was a main investor, is Ptech, which is a computer company that sells special databases and the clients are the US Government. It's the IRS, it's the FAA, it's the White House, it's the FBI, it's the State Department, however at the same time, he's already named and designated as bin Laden's financier. Ptech is an American company and is not linked to companies in Australia of the same name. Now Dateline has uncovered a financial link between Saudi Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi's business network to none other than a certain Melbourne-based Malaysian businessman, Rahim Ghouse. Rahim: Both are principal shareholders and one-time directors in the same private company, based in Kuala Lumpur, Abrar International. The third director and the man who brought al-Kadi and Ghouse together is another Malaysian businessman, Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman. Stories of Wan Hasni's rags-to-riches success as a precocious student financial whiz are proudly displayed on Abrar's web page. Abrar's core business was touted as financial services with the company applying the Islamic Sharia as its guiding beacon in promoting Islamic banking and finance. When Wan Hasni went looking for investors for Abrar, he went to the Middle East. He says he met Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi in 1993 or '94. Wan Hasni: I've been running in and out of the Middle East since the mid-1980s, yeah, because I was then a student leader in the United States and so we happened to meet a lot of the Middle Eastern people. So in the '90s, in '93 in particular when I started Abrar and so on in Malaysia, so I went to Middle East a few times and met many people there all over the place, in Kuwait, in Emirates, in Oman, as well as Saudi Arabia. So in one of the trips to Saudi Arabia, one of my Saudi friends introduced me Yassin al-Kadi, I believe it was late '93, if I'm not mistaken. If not, then must be in early '94. For him maybe it was a small amount of money, yeah, so it doesn't seem that it's that hard for him to do so and especially we are involved in the area of finance and in particular, the special focus on Islamic banking and finance.
REPORTER: A small amount of money, how much did he invest? 24 million ringgit, roughly about that. Yeah, less than US$10 million at that time, yes, the exchange rate was 2.5 ringgit per dollar. REPORTER: When you met him, what did you think of him? Well, he's a kind man. That's my personal impression of him. Very soft, very soft spoken, very polite and a pleasant personality. Wan Hasni was now in business, very big business. But he still needed another partner for the venture. Enter Rahim Ghouse, the defender of the man once tipped to become Malaysia's next prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. Ghouse was a friend of Wan Hasni, such a good friend that Wan Hasni lent him some of the money he needed to become a principal shareholder. Wan Hasni: Rahim Ghouse, he put part of the money, I lent part of the money to him. Wan Hasni was by far the biggest shareholder, owning more than 50% of the total stock in Abrar International. Between them, Rahim Ghouse and Yassin al-Kadi took up the rest of the shares. For his part, Rahim Ghouse does not deny his business dealings with a man accused of funding terrorism and whose assets have been frozen by government decree in the United States and the UK. REPORTER: Abrar International, your partners in that, Dr Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman, Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi. Do you know these men well? Yeah, I know them. Yeah, I know them. How would you describe them? As close friends? Yeah, they are businessmen. Yeah, they are involved in business, they're heavily involved in business. They are close associates of yours? Yeah, they are. Dr Wan is a close associate with me. Yassin, I met him in Malaysia in 1960 - I'm sorry 1995 or 1996. Yeah, when he want to make some form of investments in Malaysia. He's now on the US and the UK on the wanted list as someone who has funded Osama bin Laden, who has terrorist links. Do you think that your dealings with him, do you still have dealings with him? No, at the moment I don't have any more dealings with him. Since I left the country in 1998, I left all these matters to Dr Wan Hasni on all the matters of Abrar, so I don't have anymore links with him. When did you last speak with him? Years ago, I couldn't remember. A number of years ago. Wan Hasni also says communication between he and the Sheikh has ended. REPORTER: Have you spoken to Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi about the accusations made against him? When did you last speak with him? I have not been in communication with him, speaken to him or whatever, since 1998. Why not? Well, we had a big quarrel in 1998 after the economic crisis and the company went into crisis then and so after that, we had a big quarrel, I mean a big disagreement so after that then I walked my way, he walked his way and we never really communicate, yeah. Of course his accountants do came here, check the companies and whatever, and go back to report to him. Yeah. But you've not spoken to him since then? No, no, and after the announcement of September 11 issues and whatever I also I never spoken to him. While both men say they have not spoken directly to the Saudi Sheikh for some years, it was in April this year that Wan Hani resigned as a director of Abrar International. Rahim Ghouse has also resigned, although it appears he failed to notify Malaysia's Registrar of Companies, as is required by law. But both men remain Abrar International's principal shareholders. As mere shareholders their responsibility for their company's activities has diminished. Authorities in the United States are no longer interested in just Yassin al-Kadi. Dateline has learnt that they are now looking at his associates and the companies in which they invested. Abrar's business dealings with Global Chemicals America, a household chemical producer, is just one example of why authorities are keen to pursue these financial trails. As this 1997 FBI application for a search warrant details, Global Chemicals was suspected of fraud and money laundering. The Chicago Fire Department wanted to know why the company was stockpiling dangerous chemicals. One of the company's directors had since been jailed after being found guilty of money laundering. The company is no longer trading. Rita Katz believes Wan Hasni should well be nervous. REPORTER: He's a person of concern? To me, very much. Why? I don't think Yassin al-Kadi would have worked with people who he doesn't trust. Wan Hasni agreed to be interviewed by Dateline in Kuala Lumpur but he brought along back up. REPORTER: You have brought your associates with you and you've recorded this whole interview. Yeah. Why? Well, I want to have also this interview on my record and I want to keep it for my personal opinion. You're nervous? No, not nervous, never nervous. That's not really the work of a non-nervous man. (Laughs) Well, I don't know you, I don't know SBS, I don't know what Australia is, as I told you, I don't know what your agenda, yeah, so as well as I think anybody who don't know what other people's intentions are, then you just want to be safe. Sheikh Yassin al-Kadi has tried without success to remove his name from the UN suspected terrorist list and to unfreeze his funds. Singapore is the most recent nation to label the Saudi businessman a terrorist. While under the UN resolution, it is an offence to have any business or financial dealings with anyone or any organisation on that list, Australian authorities would not confirm or deny whether they are investigating either of his Malaysian business partners.