By Eyk Henning
FRANKFURT--German customs authorities have confiscated documents
from a former unit of Royal Bank of Scotland PLC showing that
family members of the widespread bin Laden clan were among its
clients.
Some bin Laden family members are respected businesspeople, such
as the owners of Saudi Binladen Group, the largest construction
company in Saudi Arabia.
RBS moved quickly on Sunday to stress that it didn't do business
with Osama bin Laden.
"We didn't take care of Osama bin Laden's financials at any
point of time, nor did we deal with his immediate relatives. His
[Osama bin Laden's] personal finances were never of interest for
[former RBS unit] Coutts International," the former RBS unit, the
Edinburgh-based bank said.
German television network RTL reported on the documents, citing
German newsweekly Focus, which broke the news earlier this weekend,
suggesting there might be a link between the state-controlled
British lender and the bin Laden family.
RBS November last year sold its Coutts Cayman operations, which
were part of its exclusive Coutts private-banking arm, to law and
fiduciary firm Appleby Global. RBS still owns Coutts, which counts
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II among its clients.
Appleby Global couldn't immediately be reached to comment.
As part of the transaction, RBS shipped two containers with
documents to Geneva from the Cayman Islands a couple of weeks ago,
people familiar with the matter said.
German customs officials at the Hamburg seaport opened those
containers and searched the documents, these people said.
German authorities have evaluated the findings in the last
couple of weeks amid a broader investigation into the banking
industry, these people said. It remained unclear on Sunday whether
the containers were opened as part of the investigation.
The Hamburg customs office couldn't be reached to comment on
Sunday.
Authorities from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought
several CDs with data on German clients of Switzerland-based banks
to investigate potential tax evasion. The efforts by the state's
prosecutors are controversial because the CDs had been stolen by
individuals who then sold them to government authorities.
Write to Eyk Henning at eyk.henning@wsj.com
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