Conflict Diamonds: HSBC and Shimon Yelinek: Arms, Drugs, Diamonds and Terrorism

Feb 16, 2015 | Aliaume Leroy, McGill International Review
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Shimon Yelinek is an Israeli businessman based in Panama. Behind this facade however, he is one of the most notorious criminals you may find among the clients of HSBC Private Bank (PB). An arms, diamonds and drug trafficker, he also took part in the financing of terrorism. His most impressive deal? The Otterloo Incident. At the end of the year 2001, a cargo of 3,117 AK-47s and 5 million rounds of ammunition is disembarked from the Otterloo ship in the port of Turbo, Colombia. Purchased from the Nicaraguan military, the weapons were intended to be delivered to the Panamanian National Police. However, Yelinek made sure they reached instead the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary group.

Born in Israel in 1961, Yelinek developed his skills and network of arms dealing in Africa between 1980 and 2001. In the 1980s and 1990s, Yelinek was the head of the security forces for the infamous Mobutu Sese Seko, the then dictator of Zaire (current Democratic Republic of Congo). It is during this time that he became acquainted with Aziz Nassour, a Lebanese diamond dealer. Close to dictator Mobutu, Nassour exported diamonds from Liberia and Sierra Leone to Antwerp, Belgium. At the time, both Mobutu and Nassour were either current or prospective clients at the HSBC PB.