News
Trial for Muslim Charity, Leaders Begins in Dallas
By Brian Orsak
printA U.S. prosecutor told a jury Tuesday that a Muslim charity funneled millions of dollars to Palestinian militant group Hamas to help overthrow Israel, the Associated Press reported. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, based in Richardson, Texas, sent $36 million to Hamas for political purposes and disguised the transactions as charitable donations, according to a federal indictment issued in July 2004. Federal agents raided the foundation's offices in December 2001, and President Bush announced the seizure of the group's assets. The charity and seven individuals also are charged with sending money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers,...
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.
Despite a legal settlement reversing sanctions against an Ohio-based charity, most banks will view the individuals once associated with the group as too risky to take on as clients, say compliance officers.
In the years since a high-profile mistrial in the prosecution of a Texas charity, counterterrorism financing officials have shifted their focus away from nongovernmental organizations and toward individuals sending money abroad.
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.
A Saudi Arabian bank is challenging the United States' right to subpoena a Saudi national's financial records after the bank's regulator said that compliance with the order would violate privacy laws.
Two rulings in the case of an Ohio-based Muslim charity fighting a terrorism designation could tighten the timeframe federal prosecutors have for collecting evidence, say terrorist financing analysts.
A former U.S. Congressman took illegal payments from a Muslim charity accused of sending more than $130,000 to a terrorist with ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban, federal prosecutors say.
Federal prosecutors failed to win a conviction against the leaders of Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, who were accused of financing terrorists.