Cablegate: Terrorist Finance - Barakat: Brazil to Look For

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 001490

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EB/ESC/TFS - GLASS
STATE FOR S/CT - NAVRATIL
TREASURY FOR OFAC - NEWCOMB
TREASURY FOR ZARATE
TREASURY FOR FINCEN - SHOWELL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/14/2015
TAGS: ETTC EFIN PTER PREL CVIS XM BR LE LVPR
SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE - BARAKAT: BRAZIL TO LOOK FOR
BARAKAT ASSETS

REF: STATE 124995

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Virden, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

1. (C) On June 8, Emboff delivered reftel notice of the USG
intention to freeze Assad Ahmad Barakat's assets to Marcus
Rector, the acting head of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry's
Office for the Combat of Illicit International Activities.
Rector said the GoB would welcome hard evidence of a Barakat
financial link to terrorism. He added that, even absent such
evidence, the GoB would like to be helpful in this case and
would explore ways that any known Barakat assets in Brazil
might be frozen based on the Paraguayan tax-evasion charges.
After consulting with a Ministry of Justice colleague, Rector
reported that a Brazilian judge could order such a freeze
should Brazil receive an official (presumably Paraguayan)
request.

2. (C) In a follow-up meeting June 15 with both Rector and
his newly-returned Office Director, Marcos Pinta Gama, the
GoB reps repeated their request for any hard evidence the USG
could share, both of Barakat's financial links to terrorism
and of any assets he might have in Brazil. Pinta Gama stated
that it would be useful to establish, in the first instance,
whether any such assets existed. He suggested that FinCen
could initiate this process by making a request through its
direct information-sharing channel with COAF, the Brazilian
financial intelligence unit. When pressed, Pinta Gama agreed
to ask that COAF direct a search for any such assets while
deferring discussion of what to do with such assets until
their existence had been established.

3. (C) Comment: Pinta Gama's agreement to look into any
assets Barakat may have in Brazil is welcome, though such
holdings are probably so well disguised that they'll be
difficult to identify. We will continue to follow up,
including next week in a scheduled meeting with the Deputy
Minister of Justice. Any further specifics the Department
can provide about suspected Barakat assets and/or tri-border
links with terrorist financing would be appreciated.

HRINAK

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