Al Shamal Islamic Bank


The Al-Shamal Islamic Bank of Khartoum, founded in 1983, is one of the major financial institutions of Sudan, and one of the leading Islamic banks worldwide.
A declassified U.S. Department of State report dated August, 1996 and a French investigation into Al Shamal Islamic Bank separately concur that Osama bin Laden invested $50m of his inherited fortune in the bank on his arrival in Sudan in 1991, in a joint venture with senior National Islamic Front members.

Shareholders

According to public records, among the investors in the Al Shamal Islamic Bank include a Geneva-based financial services conglomerate headed by Mohammed al Faisal, son of the late King Faisal.
The bank itself that among its five "main founders" and principal shareholders is another Khartoum bank, the Faisal Islamic Bank of Sudan. According to public records, 19 percent of the Faisal Islamic Bank is owned by the Dar Al-Maal Al-Islami Trust, or simply DMI Trust, also headed by Prince Faisal. The $3.5 billion DMI Trust, whose slogan is "Allah is the purveyor of success," was founded in 1981 to foster the spread of Islamic banking across the Muslim world. Its 12-member board of directors includes Haydar Mohamed Bin Laden, a half-brother of Osama bin Laden, according to a DMI spokesman.
Other shareholders include: