Capitas Group LLC announces formation of Shari’ah Supervisory Board

New York, NY – August 17, 2006 – Capitas Group LLC announces the formation of its Shari’ah Supervisory Board with leading global Islamic Finance scholars.

The Shari’ah Supervisors will independently guide Capitas Group’s development of Shari’ah compliant financial solutions. The first of these will consist of a suite of commercial finance products to be launched under the ZayanSM Finance brand in the Fall of 2006.

The distinguished members of the Shari’ah Supervisory Board are Dr. Abdul Sattar Abu Ghuddah, Shaikh Esam Ishaq, and Dr. Muhammad Imran Usmani. Members of our Shari’ah Supervisory Board also serve on the Shari’ah boards of prominent financial institutions across the globe including Citibank, HSBC Amanah, ABN Amro, Credit Suisse, The Dow Jones Islamic Indexes and many other global financial institutions.

Capitas Group has also retained the Product Development and Shari’ah Compliance (“PDSC”) Department of Meezan Bank, a leading Islamic bank in South Asia, to support the work of its Shari’ah Supervisors and Murtha Cullina LLP, a US-based law firm which provides product structuring and documentation expertise.

Naveed Siddiqui, President and CEO of Capitas Group commented, “The presence of these eminent jurists and experts in Islamic Finance creates a world class supervisory body enabling us to be at the cutting edge of Islamic finance.”

Nasser Nubani, General Counsel of Capitas Group added, “The uniqueness of our product development process comes with the real world, commercial banking expertise of Meezan Bank. With the formation of our Shari’ah Supervisory Board and the collaboration of Meezan Bank and Murtha Cullina, we have assembled a robust and integrated product development body.”

Company Profile

Capitas Group LLC is a privately held, New York based firm which specializes in providing Islamic Finance products to the American Muslim community. The company will launch its ZayanSM Finance brand of Shari’ah compliant commercial financing solutions in the Fall of 2006. Capitas Group will be sponsoring the upcoming Islamic Funds World 2006 conference in Dubai to be held from September 3-6. The company also has offices in Chicago and Princeton.

CONTACT:

Wahid Sarij, Chief of Strategic Development
300 Park Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10022
646-383-8535 tel / 877-858-6953 fax
wahid@capitasgroup.com