LOS ANGELES, July 10: A Pakistani-American gold baron, Arif Rajan, has become the latest focus of federal investigators, who are digging for a possible link between him and Al Qaeda.

According to a late Tuesday CBS News, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in a joint nationwide operation last week rounded up over a dozen immigrants, most of them Pakistanis, from jewellery shops and kiosks in the malls, linked to Rajan’s business.

All the raids, that took place from Los Angeles to Florida, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Alabama and Georgia, in 65 jewellery stores were linked to Intrigue Jewellers, franchised by a Florida-based company called Gold Concept Inc.

Formed in 1996, Gold Concept is headed by multimillionaire Orlando businessman, Arif Rajan, who is listed by the Florida Department of State as a principal in 11 businesses, ranging from pool cleaning to petroleum.

Intrigue’s trouble with the FBI started 10 months ago in Allentown (Penn), with the puzzling case of Ashar Iqbal Butt, a Pakistani employee of Intrigue at the Lehigh Valley Mall.

Butt was arrested on Sept 12, 2001, after a film-store clerk called 911, said that Butt had appeared “anxious and in a hurry” to get his film roll developed and printed, which included 25 pictures of the World Trade Center taken several days before the attacks. Confronted at the Intrigue kiosk, Butt, 22, gave a false name to the FBI agents. He has since pleaded guilty to using a false passport and is to be sentenced on Sept 12.