由此 - 22 - A In 1998, Pakistani investigators looking into government corruption found two checks, each for $5 million, allegedly aid by ARY Gold in 1994 to Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of the then-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, to secure a two-year monopoly on gold imports to Pakistam. While acknowledging he held the monopoly and shipped $500 million in gold to Pakistan from 1994 to 1996, [ARY] said that he had paid no bribes and that ‘enemies’ had falsified the bank documents. B C D E [ARY] was cleared of criminal charges in Dubai but still faces charges in Pakistan from that case, Pakistani authorities said. F G J K L M N O P Q R S T 77. B C D E F ‘Always if you are doing good business, people are jealous,’ [ARY] said. ‘Everyone, all the leaders of Pakistan, come to me for advice. We are well known and famous and people don’t like that.’” G ARY’s letter in response (published on 7 March 2002) stated:- I H I A “Through inaccuracy and inference, The Post’s Feb. 17 frontpage story ‘Al Qaeda’s Road Paved with Gold’ surmised that my company, ARY Traders/ Jewellery, and I, personally, have been helping al Qaeda and the Taliban move assets out of Afghanistan. This is untrue. My business of gold trading relies on its reputation and on building close relationships with a number of global financial institutions, based on trust and confidence. I would never place that reputation or those relationships in jeopardy for any reason. The Post’s reporter quoted me as saying that I could deliver 100 kilos of gold anywhere in 12 hours. That was an amalgamation of my responses to two separate questions – one concerning the days when the Dubai market was a free-for-all; the other about the time required to transport gold to India. Far from being unrestricted, as the report claims, Dubai has a strong regulatory regime governing gold trading. Sales of gold valued at 500,000 United Arab Emirates dirhams ($136,000) or more have to be recorded together with a copy of the buyer’s passport for scrutiny by Dubai’s central bank. At ARY, however, we voluntarily tightened that limit to 200,000 dirhams ($54,000). All our transactions are transparent. We have fewer than 40 clients, and we know all of them very well. Most of them are in Dubai and two are in India, where we work through the government’s State Trading Corporation of India. In addition, ARY Traders/Jewellery is audited by one of the Big Five international accountancy firms. Independent audit is essential if H J K L M N O P Q R S T U U V V