- François Genoud
François Genoud (1915 – May 30, 1996) was a noted Swiss financier, benefactor of the Nazi diaspora and supporter of Islamic militancy.
Synopsis
Among other things, Genoud is notable for being the executor of last will and testament of Nazi propagandist
Joseph Goebbels , and for reportedly making a fortune from publishing his diaries; later he would attain an equal measure of notoriety for bankrolling the legal defenses ofAdolf Eichmann andKlaus Barbie . Nazi hunters such asSerge Klarsfeld andSimon Wiesenthal , journalistDavid Lee Preston and others have asserted that his role as a benefactor for surviving National Socialist interests goes much deeper, offering evidence that Genoud was no less than the principal financial manager of the hidden Swiss assets of the Third Reich after WW II, [ cite web
title = Hitler's Swiss Connection
author = David Lee Preston
publisher = Philadelphia Inquirer
date = 1997-01-05
url = http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/swiss-and-hitler.html ] and would use his banking contacts to set in motion networks that later became known asODESSA , which sponsored evacuation of key Nazi leaders intoMorocco ,Spain and Latin America.In 1958 he founded the
Arab Commercial Bank , which would be active in lending money to Arab nationalist groups and as the chief repository for the AlgerianNational Liberation Front , [cite web
title = Secrecy is Golden
publisher = Time Magazine
date = November 27,1964
url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871430,00.html] in Geneva in 1958, and in 1962 was named Director of theArab People's Bank in Algiers. [Alms for Jihad, p. 62] He is also believed by Swiss authorities to have been the founder of Lugano-basedal Taqwa Bank , which was shut down in 2002 for reputed status as a funding conduit foral Qaeda andHamas .Genoud also financed the legal defense of
Carlos the Jackal after his 1994 arrest, and was a firm supporter of thePopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , in cooperation with radical lawyerJacques Verges ; he also bankrolledAyatollah Khomeini 's exile in France when Iran was governed by ShahMohammed Reza Pahlavi . When Genoud himself faced legal troubles in 1983, he was represented byBaudoin Dunant , a leading Geneva-based lawyer who sits on the board of over 20 companies, including theSaudi Investment Company , the overseas arm of theSaudi Binladin Group . [ [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/family.html PBS Frontline special on the bin Laden family] ]Death
Genoud committed suicide, with the help of a Swiss pro-
euthanasia group Exit, according to his family, at age 81 on May 30, 1996 [cite web
title = Francois Genoud, Nazi Sympathizer, 81
publisher = Associated Press
date = 1996-06-03
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E0DD1F39F930A35755C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print] .See also
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Ahmed Huber ,Youssef Nada References
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