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When will the next one crop up ?

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When will the next one crop up ?

An increasing number of Muslim NGOs are likely to suffer the same fate as three groups that were told their bank accounts are to close because they are too risky, a finance and security expert has warned.

Finsbury Park mosque in north London, international development charity the Ummah Welfare Trust (UWT) and the Cordoba Foundation thinktank received identical letters from HSBC dated 22 July giving them two months notice because their accounts fell “outside of our risk appetite”, prompting allegations of Islamophobia, strenuously denied by the bank, and calls for a boycott.

The bank has refused to expand on the reasons for the closures but Tom Keatinge, associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, said that the sector had been forced to take a cautious approach because of stringent money laundering and counter-terrorism legislation, with the effect that some organisations were treated as guilty unless proven innocent.

“Do you bother to look at these organisations in detail to see if they are credible? Do you spend time doing your research? Or do you say: ‘Time’s too short and the returns are too small so we will exercise our right to close the account’,” he said. “It’s just not worth it, it boils down to a risk/reward decision.

“The result of these decisions [by HSBC] might look like Islamophobia but I am certain no UK bank is actively going to close out Islamic charities. They made decisions that predominately affects Muslim charities given the regions they operate in.”

Both UWT and the Cordoba Foundation suggested HSBC’s decision was down to their support for Gaza. HSBC, which paid $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in 2012 to settle allegations it allowed Mexican drug-traffickers to move money around the financial system, is not the first bank to close accounts of organisations largely serving Muslim communities. In 2012, UBS closed Islamic Relief’s account and UWT previously had its account shut down by Barclays in 2008. Barclays also closed more than 200 UK accounts last year held by remittance companies providing services for Somali expatriates .

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international body dedicated to combatting terrorist financing and money laundering among other things, says that non-profit organisations are “vulnerable for abuse by terrorists or terrorist networks”, and rates governments’ compliance with its recommendations. “Why would I provide services to NGOs when I am told by the global standard setter that they are particularly vulnerable to abuse by terrorist organisations,” said Keatinge, who worked in banking for 20 years.

The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson, warned in a report last month of the risk that “anti-terrorism laws will be given a bad name if they result in avoidable restrictions on the ability of NGOs to conduct vital humanitarian and peacebuilding operations in parts of the world from which terrorism emanates”. He urged policymakers and NGOs to sit down together to prevent that happening.

Keatinge echoed the call for talks and said introducing something akin to a Kitemark, that could be periodically awarded by the Charity Commission if certain standards were met, could offer a possible solution. He added: “Should there be more guidance, for example, saying we won’t prosecute you unless there’s explicitly information that says this charity is guilty? But that will take dialogue and there’s no sign of that happening.

A government spokesman said: “It is strictly a commercial matter for a bank itself about whether or not to offer products or services to certain individuals or groups.” But he added that the government recognised the important work done by NGOs and “has an ongoing dialogue with both the banking industry and NGOs on a range of issues”.

Sprint, where does it say in the article the charities where providing terrorist funds?

A Lakemba money transfer business owned by the sister and brother-in-law of Sydney terrorist Khaled Sharrouf will be permanently shut down after it failed to convince authorities that millions of dollars sent to the Middle East were not being used to fund terrorism.

The cancellation comes amid a warning from the financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC that the risk of terrorism financing is likely to increase with the involvement of Australians in the conflict in Iraq.

Federal police are increasingly cracking down on money bound for terrorism hotspots. Several community members have told Fairfax Media about having their bank accounts frozen suddenly.

In Victoria yesterday, a series of raids by joint counter-terrorism police charged a 23-year-old man with six counts of making funds available to the Islamic State and another terrorist organisation.

Police relied on intelligence from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation when it raided seven properties linked to Hassan El-Sabsabi, whom they have accused of raising $12,000 to fund a US citizen who had been fighting in Syria for several months.

Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan alleged "funds were about to be transferred to this person in Syria".

AUSTRAC has warned that small-to-moderate transactions, often through charity donations and "commingling" of legitimate funds, are emerging as the most significant terrorism funding channels in Australia and the most difficult to monitor.

However, Fairfax Media understands that investigations by the Australian Federal Police's Terrorism Financing Investigation Unit also include large-scale money transfers and ATM ram-raids in Sydney, such as a 2013 ram-raid in North Ryde allegedly committed by terror suspect Milad Bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai.

Khaled Sharrouf's sister Damour and her husband Ahmed Alwash had their remittance firm Bisotel Rieh suspended by AUSTRAC on September 16 over concerns it was sending up to $20 million to Turkey and Lebanon to finance terrorism.


AUSTRAC extended the suspension twice during September to allow Ms Sharrouf and Mr Alwash to make submissions.

The pair argued on September 22 to keep their registration but AUSTRAC announced on Friday they will go ahead with a cancellation.

"After consideration of the submissions presented by Bisotel Rieh to date, we remain sufficiently concerned that the continued registration of Bisotel Rieh may involve a significant terrorism financing risk," acting AUSTRAC chief executive John Schmidt said.

Subject to further submissions from Ms Sharrouf and Mr Alwash, the firm will be struck off the remittance register on November 10.

Mr Schmidt said that between January and August this year, Bisotel Rieh reported international funds transfers of $12.3 million. However, AUSTRAC believe from other sources that it was, in fact, closer to $21.3 million.

The firm routinely failed to give information about the final recipient of funds and admitted smuggling cash across the border from Turkey to Lebanon because it was unable to set up a bank account in Lebanon.

Yesterday, Mr Schmidt said AUSTRAC is significantly increasing its analytical capability and intelligence systems to combat the increased risk of terrorism funding.

He pointed Fairfax Media to an AUSTRAC national risk assessment released on September 11 that stated: "With the involvement of some Australians in the conflict in Iraq, the risk of terrorism financing involving Australia ... is likely to have increased."

The risk assessment identified key areas of risk as the use of conduit countries and the commingling of legitimate funds, such as charity donations, with funds collected for terrorist groups.

Mr Gaughan said that it was "very naive" to think the arrest of Mr El-Sabsabi on Tuesday was a one-off. "There are a number of current investigations at hand," he said.

Fairfax Media understands these investigations range from large-scale money transfers, such as the Bisotel case, down to seemingly innocuous charity donations to Syria and Iraq.

Several Sydneysiders have had their bank accounts frozen recently, including Mohamed Zuhbi, a 26-year-old man who moved to Syria last year to undertake humanitarian work.

He made appeals on his Facebook page for people to make direct transfers to his Commonwealth Bank account to spend on food and supplies for Syrians. He received hundreds of small donations, totalling tens of thousands of dollars, before his account and Facebook page were shut down.

Rahmah Wisudo, wife of convicted terrorist Khaled Cheikho and daughter of the so-called "matriarch of radical Islam in Australia" Rabiah Hutchinson, also claimed that her bank account has been frozen once and her mother's twice. She has been in Jordan since her husband was convicted over the Pendennis terrorism plot in 2009.


Bank accounts for the Australians For Syria Association were also shut down a month ago by the Commonwealth Bank, without explanation, according to the ABC.

A woman who answered the Bisotel Rieh phone on Tuesday said Ms Sharrouf and Mr Alwash would not be commenting.

Ms Sharrouf's brother, Khaled, fled to Syria, via Malaysia, on his brother's passport last year and is wanted for terrorism offences....

wally1 wrote on Oct 1^st, 2014 at 6:41am:


The Australian case was on the radio yesterday.