US embassy cable - 04MADRID856

UNCLAS MADRID 000856 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE PASS EB/ESC/TFS FOR GLASS/SALOOM; IO/PHO; L/EB 
TREASURY FOR ZARATE, ROSS AND WALLWORTH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIN, PREL, IZ, SP, UNSC, Counterterrorism 
SUBJECT: IRAQI ASSETS:RASHEED BANK ACCOUNTS IN SPAIN 
 
REF: (A) SECSTATE 19363 (B) MADRID 00711 
 
1. (U) This is an action request.  Please see paragraph 4. 
 
2. (U) Though we received information from the Ministry of 
Economy that Rasheed Bank accounts were liquidated by the 
Banco Arab Espanol (ref b), we were contacted by officials of 
Spain's Financial Intelligence Unit, SEPBLAC (Executive 
Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money 
Laundering) who wanted to discuss the issue further.  We met 
March 12 with SEPBLAC Director Gabriel Panizo Gonzalez, 
Assistant Director Ignacio Palicio and the officer tasked 
with following up on this issue, Juan Carlos Calleja Lopez. 
 
3. (SBU) The officials reported that SEPBLAC plans to use its 
bank supervisory powers to conduct an unannounced inspection 
of Banco Arab Espanol.  They were surprised by ref A,s 
characterization of the suspect account as "not numbered," 
informing us that unnumbered accounts have been illegal in 
Spain for some time.  They asked if we could solicit 
additional information from Washington. 
 
4. (SBU) Action Request: To assist our Spanish colleagues, we 
request clarification of whether records actually show an 
unnumbered account, or whether the account number is simply 
unknown, as well as any additional information we can share 
with SEPBLAC authorities. 
ARGYROS