After you read the excerpt below from Frank Gaffney's piece on Sharia-compliant finance published today at BigGovernment.com, you'll begin to understand the seriousness of the story and why I designed the new faux logo for AIG (above):
It appears that, through it’s 77.9% control of AIG’s equity and voting rights, the NYFed “sought to accomplish an illegal financial transaction through false means” by creating an “independent”: trust that was in fact not independent, placing it “in violation of federal anti-money laundering statutes (18 USC § 1956).” Here we elaborate a bit further, laying out the issue in the text of a letter submitted to Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP)– as the government takeover of AIG was accomplished using funds provided to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Click here to read the rest of Gaffney's piece.
http://www.aigmemsa.com/aig/takaful/faqs.jsp
A member company of American International Group, Inc.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Sharia?
Islamic law based on Quran and the teachings of the Prophet (PBUH)
What is Takaful?
Takaful means mutual protection through co-operative risk sharing. Insurance that avoids prohibited elements in accordance with the sharia law.
Who is a Participant?
Policyholders who take protection against a named peril.
Who is an operator?
The company that invests the capital (aka shareholder) and manages the operations in a Takaful company is referred to as an Operator.
What is Haram?
Prohibited elements in Islam according to Sharia.
What is Family Takaful?
Islamic equivalent of Life Insurance.
What is a Donation?
Premiums paid by participants and also referred to as tabarru.
What is Wakala?
A contract of agency in which one person appoints someone else to perform a certain task on his behalf, usually against a certain fee.
What is a Wakala Fee?
Fee paid by participants to operator.
What is a Surplus?
Underwriting profit (belongs to participants)
What is AIG Takaful?
AIG Takaful is a wholly owned subsidiary of AIUO Ltd that specializes in providing general insurance service in a Sharia compliant manner.
How can a conventional insurance company offer Islamic banking services?
AIG Takaful is a Takaful company that is certified as Islamic by our Sharia board. Further Islamic law does not stipulate who should and should not sell Islamic products.
What is Islamic about AIG Takaful products?
We segregate the policyholders funds from shareholders fund and redistribute surplus back to the policyholders.
We do not invest in anything that is haram.
We do not borrow, lend or enter into any financial transaction that is unIslamic.
Who are your Shariah Board members and what is their role?
Our Shariah Supervisory Committee currently comprises of the following three eminent scholars;
Sheikh Nizam Yaquby from Bahrain,
Dr. Mohamed Ali Elgari from Saudi Arabia and
Dr Muhammad Imran Ashraf Usmani from Pakistan.
The role of these scholars is to review our operations, supervise its development of Islamic products, and determine the Shariah compliance of these products and our investments.
What is Mudaraba?
This is a form of partnership where one partner provides the funds while the other provides expertise and management (mudarib).Any profits accrued are shared between the two parties on a pre-agreed basis, while loss is borne by the provider(s) of the capital.
What is Murabaha?
This refers to sale on mutually agreed profit. It is a sale contract whereby the seller discloses his cost and the profit. Islamic banks have accepted this as an Islamic mode of financing. The bank does this for a definite profit over the cost, which is stipulated in advance. The bank can also take a reverse role and accept Murabaha in which case the profit is given to the investor.
What other countries does AIG MEMSA (Middle East, Mediterranean & South Asia) operate in?