THREE SHELL COMPANIES WERE USED TO DISTANCE INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS FROM DISCOVERY IN EXPLOSIVE PAGER ATTACKS UPON HEZBOLLAH

Further to our recent three articles explaining how timeworn, but effective, money laundering tradecraft was employed in the successful efforts to deliver pagers containing small amount of high explosive, our deduction early on that a shell company was being utilized to conceal the origin of the covertly exploding devices apparently was only part of the story.

According to an analysis conducted by three unnamed intelligence officers, and appearing in the New York Times, no less than three shell companies were employed in the operation. While the article is silent on details, if the operators of the pager delivery scheme followed traditional laundering methods, the additional two companies were used to further shield their true identities from discovery, by placing them, in series, to insure that beneficial ownership was totally opaque. That means shell company A is owned by shell company B, which itself is listed in public records as owned by company C. No due diligence checks, if they were made at all, could reach out three degrees to ascertain ownership and control.

One other item provided further confirmation that whoever was in command of the operation was drawing extensively from the laundryman's toolkit; the company, which used the same name as the original Taiwanese manufacturer, actually sold legitimate products wholesale in the marketplace, to further establish their cover, and dispel any concerns from its intended target, a designated global terrorist organization. The attention to detail in the pager scheme makes one wonder about the background of the individual that created it.