Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, founder and CEO of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, is being accused of swiping donation money intended for the “Ground Zero” mosque to enjoy a lavish lifestyle with his wife and his mistress. The ex-“Ground Zero” imam, his pockets stuffed with donations given to Islamic nonprofits, splurged on a high-flying [...]
$200 Million Islamic credit card scam in New Jersey
Eighteen people have been charged in what federal prosecutors in New Jersey called one of the largestcredit card fraud schemes ever uncovered by the U.S. Department of Justice, spanning 28 states and eight countries. “The defendants are part of a massive international fraud enterprise involving thousands of false identities, fraudulent identification documents, doctored credit reports and more than $200 [...]
The San Diego trial of four Somali men charged with sending money and support to the terrorist group al-Shabaab is scheduled to begin in federal court this month. A federal grand jury indicted the men in 2010 on charges of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and [...]
“The practices involve the use of third-country exchange houses or trading companies that are acting as money transmitters to process funds transfers through the United States in support of business with Iran,” that are not exempted or authorized, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said in an advisory. In its advisory, the Treasury Department outlined [...]
Prosecutors are laying out their case in court against two South Florida imams accused of funneling more than $50,000 to support the Pakistani Taliban, playing wiretapped phone calls and showing bank records to bolster their accusations against the Pakistan-born men. Hafiz Khan, the head of one of Miami’s oldest mosques, and his son, Izhar Khan, were [...]
US anti-money laundering enforcement and regulation in chaos?
The article linked below paints a disturbing picture of the status of the US government’s efforts to combat money laundering, especially where it applies to Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of Jihadist terrorism. Note in the article that it is mentioned that Stuart Levey, the former Treasury Department official charged with counterterrorism duties, is [...]
U.S. officials said last week that they seized $150 million connected to a scheme in which entities linked to Hezbollah allegedly used the U.S. financial system to launder money through West Africa and back to the group’s base of Lebanon. The seizure stems from a civil lawsuit filed last year by federal prosecutors in Manhattan [...]
West Point Report: Haqqani network supported by “rich donors”
By way of CNN, we have still more evidence of financial support for violent jihad by wealthy Muslims in the Persian Gulf region. The Haqqani network is one of the most virulent Jihadist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan and has been battling US troops for several years. It is closely allied with both Al Qaeda and [...]
As U.S. senators digest a sharply critical committee report confirming massive international money laundering by global banking giant HSBC, the Internal Revenue Service is acknowledging receipt of a whistleblower claim from a former employee of the bank who presented 1,000 pages of evidence to WND six months ago, after local and federal authorities ignored him. A series [...]
Regular readers of SFW know that we are no fans of HSBC. After all, HSBC has been at the forefront of the financial jihad to facilitate Shariah-compliant finance on a global scale. Moreover, HSBC employed the Jihadist monster Mufti Taqi Usmani as the chair of their Shariah Advisory Board. Then, when the heat over that [...]
US Treasury: Gambian supermarkets funded Hezbollah
The Kairaba Shopping Centre, a gleaming, glass-fronted two-story building in Gambia’s Serrekunda beach resort, is the biggest supermarket in mainland Africa’s smallest nation. Its clientele of wealthy locals, tourists and expat workers set it apart from the mom-and-pop stores and local markets where most ordinary Gambians shop. But the US Treasury Department sees something more [...]
Note that the authorities reveal that charities and non-profit organizations are commonly used to fund terrorism, as we have covered extensively here on Shariah Finance Watch Recently, the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit arrested five suspects in the case of the Surakarta church bombing. Among them was an Information Technology (IT) expert, Rizki Gunawan, [...]
The excellent organization United Against Nuclear Iran issued a report just before the Independence Day holiday on the role of Lebanese banks in providing funding for Hezbollah… UANI Reveals Lebanese State-Sponsored Iran/Hizballah Money Laundering Scheme that Fraudulently Supports Lebanon’s Sovereign Debt Market, Calls for Bondholder Divestment UANI Investigation Uncovers Scheme to Artificially Support Lebanon’s Sovereign [...]
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated four individuals and three entities involved in laundering the proceeds of narcotics trafficking for drug kingpin Ayman Joumaa. Treasury also designated a Colombia-based individual under its terrorism authority, Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, for directing Hezbollah’s fundraising activities in the Americas. This individual was previously designated under [...]
Shariah Finance Watch editor briefs Congressional staffers on Shariah-Compliant Finance
Recently we had the opportunity to brief staff members from 10 Congressional offices on the threat of Shariah Finance. The briefing was recorded and we have posted the full 1-hour briefing here for SFW viewers… Shariah Compliant Finance and Financial Jihad
US Treasury Sanctions Two for Ties to Al Qaeda
These kinds of sanctions are largely symbolic since it is unlikely that these two men have any assets in the USA. The Treasury Department put two people that it alleged have ties to militant Islamist groups on a blacklist on Thursday and banned American citizens from any dealings with them. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets [...]
Federal authorities have arrested a Florida businessman, Osama “Sam” Mustafa in a money laundering/tax fraud scheme. This is not the first time Mustafa has met the Feds. He was previously questioned a decade ago because he had employed one of the 9/11 hijackers at one of his San Diego gas station/convenience stores in 2000. Two [...]
We have covered HSBC frequently here on SFW, but Forbes and Reuters have just broken a story that paints a picture of HSBC as a financial institution out of control when it comes to vigilance against money laundering. We first reported on HSBC’s deplorable money laundering policies almost a year ago when it was announced [...]
Seven people have been arrested in Britain on suspicion of funding overseas terrorism with money linked to smuggling of the stimulant khat. The arrests were part of an international probe into alleged terror fundraising and money-laundering. In a statement, Scotland Yard said the arrests were part of an investigation into a network suspected of illegally [...]
The U.S. Treasury Department’s point man on terrorist financing is off to the Middle East for nearly two weeks. Daniel Glaser, assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing, will travel to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Glaser will talk with government and private sector officials about the threat of terrorist financing, [...]
This news story proves the adage that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. It seems that a US Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement intelligence officer has been embroiled in serious financial impropriety. But wait, that isn’t even HALF the story. It gets much worse. This intelligence officer is a former colonel in [...]
More Details on Funding for the Taliban
Not long ago we mentioned that the Taliban had gone online to raise money for their violent Jihadi activities. In that same post we mentioned that US intelligence sources had indicated that most of the Taliban’s financing sources remained intact since US forces engineered their overthrow way back in 2001. This continued financing provides one [...]
The Yassine family of Austin, Texas is apparently quite the enterprising group. Led by Hussein “Mike” Yassine, the Yassines were quite diversified. They own 8 bars. According to law enforcement authorities they are also a one-family crime wave. They are involved in murder, money laundering, drug dealing–and they have a brother back in Lebanon who [...]
FATF, the world’s leading international watchdog for money laundering, terror funding, and financial standard setting, is concerned that Bangladesh hasn’t done enough to criminalize terrorist financing, and isn’t freezing suspect accounts. FATF is rightly concerned. Just take Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited as an example. IBBL is Bangladesh’s premier sharia bank, and it has used its wealth to [...]
Correcting The New Misinformation on Islamic Charities Funding Jihadist Terrorism
The Guardian in the UK has come out with an article (“Counterterrorism laws taking their toll on humanitarian action”) critical of US counterterrorism efforts that are designed to prevent the funneling of money to Jihadist terrorist groups, especially in Gaza and Somalia, two hotbeds of Jihadist terrorist activity. When ever we see misguided and ignorant [...]
A Syrian-American restaurant owner named Jamal Roman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has been sentenced to 53 months in prison on a variety of fraud, bribery and tax evasion charges. What is also buried in the press release from the FBI below, is the fact that he also sent $700,000 to Syria, in violation of US [...]
An Iranian businessman, Amir-Mansour Aria, has been accused of defrauding the world’s second largest Shariah-compliant bank out of $2.6 billion. SFW readers may recall us mentioning the bank, Bank Saderat, from time to time: http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2009/08/12/shariah-compliant-finance-helps-terrorist-banks-in-iran/ Bank Saderat is second only to Iran’s Bank Melli on the list of largest Shariah-compliant financial institutions in the world. Iranian [...]
3 Boston Islamic charity leaders convicted for support of jihad
A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the acquittal of a Libyan man and two associates who were accused of conspiring to dupe the U.S. government into granting tax-exempt status to a defunct Muslim charity by hiding its pro-jihad activities. The appeals court reinstated the jury’s guilty verdict against Libya’s Emadeddin Muntasser together with Samir [...]
The indispensable people over at The Investigative Project on Terrorism are reporting that the Obama Justice Department have reached a settlement with a Shariah-compliant financial institution being investigated for involvement in terrorism financing and tax evasion. The Islamic Investment Company of the Gulf (IICG) was part of a web of financial institutions with ties to [...]
Earlier this month, SFW brought to its readers a report on the possible motives of the Holder Justice Department not to prosecute CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) for its role in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing scheme: http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2011/07/07/report-attorney-general-eric-holder-protected-hamas-linked-council-on-american-islamic-relations-for-political-reasons/ Over at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government site, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, has an article about [...]
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