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U.S. Hawala Use Largely Untouched by AML Controls, Say Consultants

By Colby Adams

Three weeks before he attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square on May 1, Faisal Shazhad, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Connecticut, was in New York picking up $7,000 in cash sent by a suspected member of a Pakistani terrorist group. Federal investigators contend that the money was transferred through informal channels from an unnamed individual in Pakistan to three Pakistanis living in Massachusetts and Maine, although the men may not have known what the money was intended for. The transaction followed another in February, for $5,000, from the same individual, according to court documents. The investigation,...

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