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Kenya Attacks to Invigorate Counterterrorism Financing Efforts Against Somali Group: Officials
By Colby Adams
printAmerican and British officials will likely weigh steps to quash fundraising by the Somali rebel group behind the terror attack and hostage standoff in Kenya, two investigators said Monday. U.S. investigators are sifting through bank secrecy reports filed on outbound remittances for any links to Al Shabaab, an al Qaida-affiliated group that has claimed responsibility for killing at least 62 people and taking hundreds of hostages Saturday at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, said Jane Rhodes-Wolfe, chief of the FBI's Terrorist Financing Operations Section. The investigation could lead to the U.S. Treasury Department announcing new designations against members of Al...
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Kenyan officials will remove some money services businesses from a governmental blacklist following evaluations of the companies' compliance controls, according to an individual with direct knowledge of the matter.
Kenyan officials will give money transfer companies and other businesses a week to appeal their inclusion on a sanctions list targeting al-Shabab, the head of the country's financial intelligence unit said.
Kenyan sanctions imposed Tuesday to clamp down on the finances of Somali terrorist group al-Shabab have sharply impacted money remittance businesses in London, company agents told ACAMS moneylaundering.com Thursday.
Federal regulators and law enforcement agencies are using Bank Secrecy Act data to identify financial transactions tied to Islamic State, the Sunni terrorist group operating in Syria and Iraq.
In the strange and often obscure world of terrorist financing, an account's lack of transactional activity seems an unlikely red flag for anti-money laundering compliance officers.
Somali pirates are exploiting remittance services offered by regional telecommunications companies to launder the proceeds of kidnapping and other crimes, according to the World Bank.
The British High Court injunction Tuesday against Barclays ending its relationship with Somali money services businesses is likely to keep the bank from dropping the accounts for five or six months, according to compliance experts.
American sanctions, terrorist financing prosecutions and rising related compliance costs have made it increasingly difficult for Somalia's U.S.-based community to move money to the African nation.