News
Treasury Department Will Move to Blacklist Gaza Strip Bank with Hamas Ties: Former U.S. Officials
By Matt Squire
printThe United States will likely sanction a newly opened Gaza Strip-based bank said to have Hamas members on its board of directors, say former government officials. The National Islamic Bank, which opened in the Hamas-controlled portion of the Palestinian territories on Tuesday, plans to hold accounts for 6,000 employees of the political organization, sanctioned as a terrorist group by the United States since 1995, according to a report from Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday. Alaa al-Rafati, the head of the bank, said that the institution is privately-held and "not associated to Hamas or to the government in Gaza," though bank...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday unanimously passed a bill aimed at foreign banks that provide financial services to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Shiite militant group.
A transactional data handover mandated under a $102 million settlement disclosed Tuesday between the U.S. Justice Department and a defunct Beirut bank will likely lead to new financial crime investigations.
As U.S. officials work to shield American prepaid cards from abuse by financial crooks, foreign-issued stored value products remain a relatively easy avenue to move money into the United States anonymously.
A decision by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirming sanctions against Jordan's largest bank for not turning over data on suspicious accounts could leave some financial institutions with an unwanted choice, say attorneys.
The U.S. Treasury Department Friday fined a Sioux Falls, SD bank branch $10 million for not properly reporting instances of suspected structuring and terrorist financing.
Increases in the rates that U.S. states tax cigarette purchasers has led to a rise in tobacco smuggling by organized crime groups and terrorist financiers, say governmental officials.
U.S. officials have launched a criminal investigation after linking data seized at Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan to a Bank Secrecy Act report, counterterrorism investigators said Monday.
The U.S. Justice Department seized $150 million held for a Lebanese financial institution at accounts at five U.S. banks, as part of a crackdown on a purported terrorist financing network.
The U.S. Treasury Department's ability to freeze the funds of suspected terror financiers without a warrant is likely curtailed to emergency circumstances under a court order handed down last week.
Lawmakers are asking the U.S. Justice Department to clarify how it will prosecute individuals and groups that aid terrorist organizations, and whether those cases could involve innocent charity groups.
U.S. efforts to clamp down on terror financiers have been largely a success, a federal official told American lawmakers at a hearing in downtown Manhattan Tuesday.
U.S. lawmakers Thursday questioned how a blacklisted Lebanese terrorist organization works with political leaders and narco-traffickers in Latin America.
The Senate Thursday named David Cohen the nation's top sanctions official after legislators agreed to end a standoff over the U.S. Treasury Department's implementation of financial measures aimed at Iran.
Less than two years after U.S. diplomats mentioned concerns that Qatar's terrorist financing problems may be "the worst in the region," the country has done little to effectively limit the crime, say experts.
Egypt's decision to reopen the Gaza Strip's most important land-based port of entry will complicate international efforts to stem funding for designated terrorist group Hamas, say critics of the move.
Documents and data seized Sunday by the United States during the military raid that killed Osama Bin Laden will likely give officials insight into how the terror group's financial network operates, say analysts.
A Beirut-based lender acted as a "primary money laundering concern" by handling hundreds of millions of dollars for drug traffickers and a designated terrorist organization, U.S. officials said Thursday.
While crediting financial sanctions with stemming funding for Al Qaeda, U.S. Treasury official David Cohen said that the Taliban was in much stronger financial shape because of income from extorting poppy farmers and drug traffickers and "protection" money from legitimate Afghan businesses.
The Fatah-run Palestinian government, which is vying with Hamas for the control of the divided Palestinian territories, is drafting measures to counter money laundering by its rival, but compliance experts say the effort is mere "window dressing."
The United States continued its aggressive pursuit of terrorist financing this week by freezing the assets of an Islamic bank, an investment firm and a U.S.-based charity.