Youssef Nada

Chairman and co-founder of Bank Al Taqwa.

A 1986 article in London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Nada, along with Ahmed Ben Bella, a former president of Algeria, held a secret meeting at his Switzerland home attended by "major figures in some of the world’s most violent groups." Other attendees the meeting included the "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman and Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a leading Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim scholar. In an interview on al-Jazeera, Nada himself vehemently denied any such thing to have occurred.

In a November 2001 raid on offices and residences associated with Youssef Nada, an untitled document, written in Arabic and dated December 1, 1982, ostensibly outlining a plan to infiltrate and defeat Western countries was found. Later referred to as "The Project" by Swiss-French journalist Sylvain Besson, it would be portrayed as a seminal Brotherhood text outlining their plan for Muslims to infiltrate and defeat Western countries.

In November 2001, the Swiss government froze 24 bank accounts associated with Nada, and the Swiss federal prosecutor's office, led by Claude Nicati, began an aggressive inquiry into the activities of Nada and Taqwa co-director Ali Ghaleb Himmat. Both men repeatedly denied any connection with Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network. Ultimately the Federal Court in Bellinzona dropped the charges, for lack of evidence.