Category: Counter Terrorist Financing

Ahead of World Cup, Mexico Quietly Orders Banks to Tighten Terror-Finance Controls

Counter Terrorist Financing
Two months ahead of the World Cup, Mexico’s financial intelligence agency asked banks, brokerage firms, and other financial entities in the country to increase surveillance of transactions that could be linked to terrorism financing and the profiliation of weapons of mass destruction. The non-public directives were sent to financial institutions in April. OCCRP obtained a copy of the document that outlines risk indicators designed to flag illicit money flows. Experts consulted by OCCRP pointed out the timing of the instruction and the fact that the World Cup context is propitious for the increase of risk levels in financial operations. The…

French Cement Giant Convicted of Financing Terrorism

Counter Terrorist Financing, Terrorism
A Paris court on Monday convicted French cement giant Lafarge and eight former executives of financing terrorism, ruling they paid jihadist groups millions to keep a Syrian plant running during the country’s civil war. Former CEO Bruno Lafont was sentenced to six years in prison, effective immediately. Seven other former executives received prison terms ranging from 18 months to seven years. The criminal court also fined the company 1.125 million euros ($1.32 million) for the terrorism charge, and levied a joint 4.57 million euros ($5.35 million) customs fine against Lafarge and four executives for violating international financial sanctions. During the…

France Puts Cement Giant on Trial for Allegedly Financing ISIS

Counter Terrorist Financing, Terrorism
A French court on Tuesday opened the trial of cement giant Lafarge over allegations the company paid millions of euros to jihadist groups in Syria between 2013 and 2014 to keep a local plant running during the country’s civil war. The Paris Criminal Court is hearing the case against the French company and eight other defendants accused of financing armed groups in war-torn Syria, including the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the al-Nusrah Front (ANF), to keep its local subsidiary operating. The trial is scheduled to run until December 16. Among the accused is former CEO Bruno…

Bargain Hunt expert jailed for selling art to suspected Hezbollah financier

Counter Terrorist Financing
A former Bargain Hunt art expert has been jailed for two years and six months for failing to declare art he sold to a suspected financier of Hezbollah. In the first prosecution of its kind, Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, admitted eight counts under the Terrorism Act 2000 of failing to make a disclosure during the course of business before his sentencing at the Old Bailey on Friday. Hezbollah is a group proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK.  Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Ojiri had been aware the art he had sold was to Nazem Ahmad, who had been sanctioned in 2019…

FinCEN Issues Advisory Highlighting Iranian Oil Smuggling, Shadow Banking, and Weapons Procurement Typologies

Counter Terrorist Financing
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is issuing an Advisory to assist financial institutions in identifying, preventing, and reporting suspicious activity connected to Iranian illicit financial activity, including oil smuggling, “shadow banking,” and weapons procurement. The Advisory replaces FinCEN’s 2018 Iran Advisory, which FinCEN is rescinding today. The Advisory supports the implementation of the U.S. maximum pressure campaign against Iran outlined in National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-2) and provides updated red flags and information on current trends and typologies for Iranian sanctions evasion and other illicit activity. Concurrently, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control…

Man Sentenced to Over 30 Years in Prison for Crypto-Terror Financing Scheme

Counter Terrorist Financing
Defendant Collected and Sent More Than $185,000 to ISIS A Springfield, Virginia, man was sentenced yesterday to 364 months in prison for his efforts to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. According to court records and evidence presented at trial, from at least October 2019 through October 2022, Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa, 35, collected and sent money to female ISIS members in Syria to benefit ISIS in various ways, including by financing the escape of female ISIS members from prison camps and supporting ISIS fighters. Chhipa would raise funds online…

Bargain Hunt expert admits failing to report sales to suspected Hezbollah funder

Counter Terrorist Financing
An art dealer who has appeared as an expert on the BBC programme Bargain Hunt has admitted failing to report his dealings with a suspected Hezbollah financier. The court heard that Oghenochuko Ojiri sold artwork to Nazem Ahmad but did not tell the authorities despite knowing Ahmad had been under US sanctions over links to the proscribed organisation. On Thursday, Ojiri became the first person to be charged with such an offence. He pleaded guilty to eight counts relating to a period between October 2020 and December 2021 at Westminster magistrates court on Friday. The prosecutor, Lyndon Harris, told the…

Emerging money laundering and terrorist financing risks from April 2025

Counter Terrorist Financing, Money Laundering
Licence Condition 12.1.1(3) of the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP), requires operators to keep up-to-date with emerging risks information published by the Gambling Commission. This emerging risks publication is a trigger for operators to review their money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessments and related policies, procedures and controls to ensure that they remain appropriate and effective. Money service business activity in remote and non-remote casinos Risk information Some remote and non-remote casinos offer money service business (MSB) facilities, which include: foreign currency exchangethird-party cheque cashingthird-party money transfer (into and out of the casino)We are aware of casino…

Now Live – Updates to the Land Conversion and Financial Crime Risk Assessment

Counter Terrorist Financing
Cattle-laundering, conflict, and terrorist financing in the Lake Chad Basin Recent reports have found that cattle rustling – the forceful theft of livestock for illicit commercial gain – has become increasingly prevalent in the Lake Chad Basin in Africa, linking the cattle industry with conflict and terrorist financing. Between 2015 and 2024, the incidences of cattle rustling by Boko Haram at the borders of Cameroon and Chad have increased nearly 800%, from two incidences reported in 2015 to 158 in 2024. These incidences have also been accompanied by increased fatalities, with 20 deaths linked to cattle rustling in 2024. According…

CTED Trends Tracker | Evolving Trends in the Financing of Foreign Terrorist Fighters’ Activity: 2014 – 2024

Counter Terrorist Financing, Terrorism
In its resolution 2178 (2014), adopted unanimously on 24 September 2014, the Security Council expressed particular concern over the acute and growing threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), in particular those recruited by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Da’esh), the Nusrah Front and Al-Qaida. It also underlined the need to disrupt financial flows supporting FTFs, while respecting international human rights law, international refugee law, and international humanitarian law. In that resolution, the Council also directed CTED to identify issues, trends and developments related to FTFs. In this regard, the Trends Tracker offers a brief examination…

Kuwait’s measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing

Counter Terrorist Financing, Money Laundering
Kuwait has an adequate legal and supervisory framework to address illicit finance, but has serious shortcomings delivering effective outcomes, including its understanding, investigation and prosecution of money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF/MENAFATF mutual evaluation report of Kuwait assessed the effectiveness of Kuwait’s measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, and their level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations. Kuwait is a high-income country with low levels of violent crime but that nevertheless faces money laundering risks from crimes that include fraud, corruption, forgery and offences committed abroad. The country is exposed to terrorist financing risks from…

Inside Hamas’ Pocketbook : Financing Terrorism through online financial platforms

Counter Terrorist Financing, Terrorism
In the wake of the 7 October attack and the war that has followed, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, has conducted much of its financial activity through established and emerging online financial platforms (OFPs) to support its rule in the Gaza Strip. Even though Hamas is designated as a terror organisation (and is therefore sanctioned) in the US, UK, EU and elsewhere, it has been able to take advantage of compliance-related loopholes and poor counter-terror financing (CTF) practices OFPs suffer from. Some of the OFPs Hamas uses and abuses include technologies such as online payment processors, virtual assets service…

Banana giant held liable for funding paramilitaries

Counter Terrorist Financing, Terrorism
A court in the United States has found multinational fruit company Chiquita Brands International liable for financing a Colombian paramilitary group. The group, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), was designated by the US as a terrorist organisation at the time. Following a civil case brought by eight Colombian families whose relatives were killed by the AUC, Chiquita has been ordered to pay $38.3m (£30m) in damages to the families. Chiquita said in a statement that it intended to appeal against the jury’s verdict, arguing that there was “no legal basis for the claims”. The jury in the case,…

Treasury Publishes 2024 National Risk Assessments for Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing

Counter Terrorist Financing, Money Laundering
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published the 2024 National Risk Assessments on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing. These reports highlight the most significant illicit finance threats, vulnerabilities, and risks facing the United States. The reports detail recent, significant updates to the U.S. anti-money laundering/counter-financing of terrorism framework and explain changes to the illicit finance risk environment. These include the ongoing fentanyl crisis, foreign and domestic terrorist attacks and related financing, increased potency of ransomware attacks, the growth of professional money laundering, and continued digitization of payments and financial services. These assessments also address how…

Bipartisan Anti-Crypto Terror Financing Bill Heads to U.S. Senate

Counter Terrorist Financing, Regulation
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators including Mitt Romney (R-UT) introduced legislation that expands sanctions to foreign entities supporting all U.S.-designated terrorist groups, including through crypto transactions, giving law enforcement an additional toolkit to tackle terror financing.“The Terrorist Financing Prevention Act of 2023, introduced by the Senators, aims to prevent Foreign Terrorist Organizations and their financial enablers, including those using digital assets, from accessing U.S. financial institutions, imposing sanctions and strict regulations to counteract these activities,” the bill reads.The proposed act broadens current sanctions, initially focused on Hezbollah, to include all U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations and their supporting foreign entities.…

India: Government weaponizing terrorism financing watchdog recommendations against civil society

Counter Terrorist Financing
Indian authorities are exploiting the recommendations of a global terrorism financing and money laundering watchdog to target civil society groups and activists and deliberately hinder their work, said Amnesty International in a new briefing released today. “Weaponizing counter-terrorism: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target civil society” reveals how the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—a global body responsible for tackling terrorism financing and money laundering—have been abused by the Indian authorities to bring in draconian laws in a coordinated campaign to stifle the non-profit sector. These laws are in turn used to bring terrorism-related charges and,…

FinCEN Proposes New Regulation to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

Counter Terrorist Financing, Money Laundering, Regulation
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has taken a significant step in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing by announcing a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM). This NPRM identifies international Convertible Virtual Currency Mixing (CVC mixing) as a class of transactions of primary money laundering concern. The move comes in response to growing concerns regarding the extensive use of CVC mixing services by various illicit actors worldwide, including state-affiliated cyber actors, cybercriminals, and terrorist groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The proposed rule…

Switzerland Probing Hamas Financing: Attorney General

Counter Terrorist Financing
The Swiss judiciary is investigating possible financing of Hamas from Switzerland despite the country not classifying the group as a terrorist organisation, its attorney general said Saturday. The investigation was opened “several weeks” before the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, Stefan Blaettler said, on Swiss public radio station SRF, without revealing further details. The Attorney General’s office later told AFP that the investigation was launched “on suspicion of financing Hamas from Switzerland”. The investigation is expected to be laborious because, unlike the European Union and United States, Switzerland has not placed bans on Hamas. But since the attack,…

MAS – Strengthening Financial Institutions Countering the Financing of Terrorism Controls

Counter Terrorist Financing, Law, Regulation & Guidance, Terrorism
MAS conducted an industry-wide survey of CFT-related controls, and followed up with a series of thematic reviews to assess FIs’ TF risk understanding and examine the effectiveness of their CFT-related controls. This paper sets out MAS’ key observations, and highlights our supervisory expectations that FIs should review against their own controls. FIs should benchmark themselves against the practices and supervisory expectations set out in this paper in a risk-based and proportionate manner, and conduct a gap analysis. In doing so, FIs should give due regard to the risk profile of their business activities and customers. Where FIs observe any gaps…

Financial Crime Watchdog FATF Suspends Russia over Ukraine War

Counter Terrorist Financing, FATF, Money Laundering
PARIS, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Global financial crime watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) suspended Russia’s membership on Friday, saying Moscow’s war in Ukraine violated the organisation’s principles. FATF is an inter-governmental organisation set up to combat money laundering and terrorism financing by setting global standards and checking if countries respect them. “This is the first time a member of FATF is suspended,” FATF President Raja Kumar told a news conference. “Russia is effectively sidelined from the organisation.” Article Credit: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/financial-crime-watchdog-fatf-suspends-russias-membership-over-ukraine-war-2023-02-24/

European Countries Top of Basel AML Index

Counter Terrorist Financing, FATF, Money Laundering
EUROPEAN countries and New Zealand comprise the Top 10 countries in the Basel Institute AML Index. On the other end of the scale, the bottom 10 are dominated by African countries along with Haiti, Myanmar and Cambodia. Finland – whose FATF assessment was also released today – comes out on top of the ratings with Congo ranked bottom stacking up a rating of 8.3 out of 10 for its money laundering risk. Under the Basel AML Index, countries are assessed under 18 indicators including the quality of their AML/CFT Framework, their Corruption and Bribery Risk, Financial Transparency and Standards, Public…