Bangladesh, Nov. 26 -- For years, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been celebrated across the world as a pioneer of microfinance and a champion of the poor. Yet behind this carefully polished global image lies a far darker reality – a web of connections linking Yunuss sprawling “Grameen” empire to individuals named by Western intelligence agencies as financiers of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. As international counterterrorism bodies intensify their scrutiny of transnational financial networks, Yunuss partnerships and donors may soon come under the harshest spotlight in decades.

‘Grameen, the global corporate empire headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and long admired by influential international figures such...