By Lydia Chen
Bank of China today dismissed allegations that it helped terrorist groups by transferring millions of dollars and said the accusations are "sheer nonsense" and are "completely unfounded."
The bank has always "strictly" adhered to regulations regarding international money laundering and terrorism financing. Its internal rules also forbid providing any services to terrorist groups, Wang Zhaowen, a spokesman for the country's third largest lender said, Xinhua news agency reported.
Kent Henderson, who represents more than 100 Israelis, has alleged in a complaint filed on August 22 in the Los Angeles Superior Court, that from 2003, Bank of China conducted dozens of wire transfers worth several million dollars to Hamas and Islamic Jihad through branches in the United States, the Associated Press reported.
The banking services "caused, enabled and facilitated the terrorist attacks in which the plaintiffs and their decedents were harmed and killed," Henderson wrote in the complaint, which seeks unspecified damages.
Wang said the bank will clarify its position through legal process and reserves the right to file lawsuits or take other legal action.
"We trust that the US court will reach a fair verdict based on the facts," Wang said.
The Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, which is backing the suit against Bank of China, began suing banks on behalf of victims of terrorism in May. It accused the financial institutions, including UBS AG, of providing financial services that ended up helping terrorist groups. Last month, five Lebanese banks were sued in the US and Canada.
Source: Shangai Daily
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Rabu, 30 Mei 2012
Senin, 28 Mei 2012
Israelis accuse Bank of China of funding militants
The Bank of China has brushed off accusations that it was involved in transferring money to terrorists acting against Israeli citizens as "sheer nonsense".
The statement comes in the wake of reports in the western media that over 100 Israeli victims of terrorism have filed a lawsuit in a US court against it demanding an end to the transfer of funds to terrorists. "The accusation is absolutely groundless. Bank of China is prepared to fight the suit," BOC said.
A group of Israelis have moved the US court saying the bank has put through dozens of wire transfers totalling several million dollars to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The funds had helped to finance attacks on them between 2004 and 2007. The lawsuit also said the BOC has "knowingly assisted Hamas and the Islamic Jihad," the lawsuit alleged.
Source: Times of India
The statement comes in the wake of reports in the western media that over 100 Israeli victims of terrorism have filed a lawsuit in a US court against it demanding an end to the transfer of funds to terrorists. "The accusation is absolutely groundless. Bank of China is prepared to fight the suit," BOC said.
A group of Israelis have moved the US court saying the bank has put through dozens of wire transfers totalling several million dollars to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The funds had helped to finance attacks on them between 2004 and 2007. The lawsuit also said the BOC has "knowingly assisted Hamas and the Islamic Jihad," the lawsuit alleged.
Source: Times of India
'Israel allows vast sums to reach Hamas'
The government has admitted that it is allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to be transferred to Hamas in Gaza, the watchdog organization Shurat Hadin charged on Thursday.
Organization head Nitzana Darshan-Leitner quoted from a letter she received from the legal adviser of the Prime Minister's Office that said, "The transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip takes place with the knowledge of the government of Israel for diplomatic reasons."
However, Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office, told The Jerusalem Post that the funds mentioned in the legal adviser's letter referred to the money from customs taxes belonging to the PA in accordance with the Paris Agreement of 1994.
According to the agreement, the customs tax for goods imported to the West Bank is collected by Israel at the ports and then delivered to the PA in Ramallah.
"Not a single penny of this money goes to the Hamas," said Regev. The money is used to pay PA employees working in the Gaza Strip, he added.
However, Shurat Hadin attorney Ro'i Kochavi said that his organization's allegations were not related to these funds but to other transfers by the Bank of Israel and the Postal Authority.
"The transfer of hundreds of millions [dollars' worth] of shekels in cash (bills and coins) to the Gaza Strip has continued since the Hamas takeover of Gaza last year," wrote Shurat Hadin. "The money is transferred in armored cars from banks in Judea and Samaria by the Postal Authority and others. Some of the money is used to replace bills that deteriorated [and could not be used] and some to launder money that the Hamas smuggles into the Gaza Strip from Iran via Egypt."
Kochavi told the Post that the Iranian money was delivered in large bills. The armored cars sent by banks with branches in Ramallah and Gaza bring Israeli shekels to the Gaza-Israel border, where they switch loads with armored cars from Gaza carrying the Iranian money, he said.
Kochavi charged that Hamas was using the shekels to pay their armed forces.
Meanwhile, the Iranian money is brought to the banks in the West Bank, where it is sold to the Bank of Israel in return for shekels, he said. The cycle then repeats itself.
In a letter to Kochavi, Merav Batzri, assistant to the legal adviser of the Bank of Israel, wrote that the bank did not know anything about the facts presented in Shurat Hadin's letter. However, it added that "the Bank of Israel also serves as a professional economic adviser to the government of Israel. In this context, it is involved with the relations between banks in Israel and those operating in the areas of the Palestinian Authority. Furthermore, the decision to transfer funds to the Gaza Strip is based on a wide basket of considerations aside from economic considerations, including political, security and others. These are the responsibility of the government rather than the bank."
Attorney Ronen Baharav wrote that "the Postal Bank Company, which provides services to the Postal Authority, is required from time to time to transfer money or cash checks on behalf of recipients living in the Gaza Strip. The bank's activities are carried out with the knowledge of the relevant authorities."
Darshan-Leitner wrote that she was considering petitioning the High Court of Justice, charging that the government was violating the Prohibition of Terrorist Funding Law and the Prohibition against Money Laundering Law.
Source: JPost
Organization head Nitzana Darshan-Leitner quoted from a letter she received from the legal adviser of the Prime Minister's Office that said, "The transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip takes place with the knowledge of the government of Israel for diplomatic reasons."
However, Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office, told The Jerusalem Post that the funds mentioned in the legal adviser's letter referred to the money from customs taxes belonging to the PA in accordance with the Paris Agreement of 1994.
According to the agreement, the customs tax for goods imported to the West Bank is collected by Israel at the ports and then delivered to the PA in Ramallah.
"Not a single penny of this money goes to the Hamas," said Regev. The money is used to pay PA employees working in the Gaza Strip, he added.
However, Shurat Hadin attorney Ro'i Kochavi said that his organization's allegations were not related to these funds but to other transfers by the Bank of Israel and the Postal Authority.
"The transfer of hundreds of millions [dollars' worth] of shekels in cash (bills and coins) to the Gaza Strip has continued since the Hamas takeover of Gaza last year," wrote Shurat Hadin. "The money is transferred in armored cars from banks in Judea and Samaria by the Postal Authority and others. Some of the money is used to replace bills that deteriorated [and could not be used] and some to launder money that the Hamas smuggles into the Gaza Strip from Iran via Egypt."
Kochavi told the Post that the Iranian money was delivered in large bills. The armored cars sent by banks with branches in Ramallah and Gaza bring Israeli shekels to the Gaza-Israel border, where they switch loads with armored cars from Gaza carrying the Iranian money, he said.
Kochavi charged that Hamas was using the shekels to pay their armed forces.
Meanwhile, the Iranian money is brought to the banks in the West Bank, where it is sold to the Bank of Israel in return for shekels, he said. The cycle then repeats itself.
In a letter to Kochavi, Merav Batzri, assistant to the legal adviser of the Bank of Israel, wrote that the bank did not know anything about the facts presented in Shurat Hadin's letter. However, it added that "the Bank of Israel also serves as a professional economic adviser to the government of Israel. In this context, it is involved with the relations between banks in Israel and those operating in the areas of the Palestinian Authority. Furthermore, the decision to transfer funds to the Gaza Strip is based on a wide basket of considerations aside from economic considerations, including political, security and others. These are the responsibility of the government rather than the bank."
Attorney Ronen Baharav wrote that "the Postal Bank Company, which provides services to the Postal Authority, is required from time to time to transfer money or cash checks on behalf of recipients living in the Gaza Strip. The bank's activities are carried out with the knowledge of the relevant authorities."
Darshan-Leitner wrote that she was considering petitioning the High Court of Justice, charging that the government was violating the Prohibition of Terrorist Funding Law and the Prohibition against Money Laundering Law.
Source: JPost
Abbas signs AML decree, making it harder for Hamas to bring in funds
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has signed an anti-money laundering decree that could make it harder for Hamas to obtain funds and is also meant to reassure foreign banks that they can do business with their Palestinian counterparts, officials said Saturday.
Hamas officials acknowledged that the new regulations could hamper its cash flow. "This law may have some effect on the movement, but eventually it won't succeed in fulfilling its goal of drying up the financial sources of the Hamas movement," said a spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri.
No bank will deal directly with Hamas. However, Palestinian officials from Abbas' Fatah movement have alleged that Hamas has made deals with moneychangers and merchants to receive funds from Iran, Arab countries and Islamic charities abroad. Cash is also believed to be smuggled through tunnels into Gaza.
Abbas signed the decree Friday, and it was published in the Palestinian media on Saturday.
Under the new regulations, violators face three to 15 years in prisons and fines of up to 600,000 shekels ($125,000).
Jihad Alwazir, the deputy governor of the Palestine Monetary Fund, said the regulations were put together with the help of the International Monetary Fund and were in line with international standards.
"The prosecutors now have more means at their disposal," Alwazir said of the new regulations. The Palestine Monetary Fund serves as the Palestinians' central bank.
Alwazir said the new rules should reassure foreign banks that they can do business with their Palestinian counterparts without running afoul of U.S. and Israeli counter-terrorism regulations.
Two Israeli banks, Bank Hapoalim and Israel Discount Bank, announced several weeks ago that they were severing their ties with Gaza's banks. The Israeli banks are wary of inadvertently funneling money to Hamas.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/27/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-Money-Laundering.php
Hamas officials acknowledged that the new regulations could hamper its cash flow. "This law may have some effect on the movement, but eventually it won't succeed in fulfilling its goal of drying up the financial sources of the Hamas movement," said a spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri.
No bank will deal directly with Hamas. However, Palestinian officials from Abbas' Fatah movement have alleged that Hamas has made deals with moneychangers and merchants to receive funds from Iran, Arab countries and Islamic charities abroad. Cash is also believed to be smuggled through tunnels into Gaza.
Abbas signed the decree Friday, and it was published in the Palestinian media on Saturday.
Under the new regulations, violators face three to 15 years in prisons and fines of up to 600,000 shekels ($125,000).
Jihad Alwazir, the deputy governor of the Palestine Monetary Fund, said the regulations were put together with the help of the International Monetary Fund and were in line with international standards.
"The prosecutors now have more means at their disposal," Alwazir said of the new regulations. The Palestine Monetary Fund serves as the Palestinians' central bank.
Alwazir said the new rules should reassure foreign banks that they can do business with their Palestinian counterparts without running afoul of U.S. and Israeli counter-terrorism regulations.
Two Israeli banks, Bank Hapoalim and Israel Discount Bank, announced several weeks ago that they were severing their ties with Gaza's banks. The Israeli banks are wary of inadvertently funneling money to Hamas.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/27/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-Money-Laundering.php
Jumat, 25 Mei 2012
Muslim Charity's Ex-Leaders Convicted
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 25, 2008; Page A06
A federal jury in Dallas convicted five men with ties to a prominent Muslim charity of scores of criminal charges yesterday, handing the U.S. government a significant victory in its largest terrorism financing trial.
The verdicts against former leaders of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once ranked as the country's largest Muslim charitable organization, came only hours after a federal appeals court panel in New York upheld criminal convictions of three men accused of helping plot deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
Together, the developments strengthened the Justice Department's power to choke the sources of funding that help fuel terrorist schemes -- and to use warrantless electronic surveillance to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens suspected of engaging in international conspiracies.
Yet the victories in cases first filed as long as a decade ago underscore the lengthy path through the criminal justice system, which has afforded the government a mixed record in terrorism prosecutions.
Dennis M. Lormel, a former chief of the FBI's terrorist financing operation section, said the guilty verdicts on the 108 charges in the Holy Land trial amounted to a "validation" of the government's approach and encouraged his former colleagues to aggressively pursue similar investigations.
But Lormel said the most critical, practical development may have come in December 2001, when authorities raided the charity's headquarters in Richardson, Tex., and seized its assets.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials accused Holy Land of funneling more than $12 million to the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The original case against Holy Land and its leaders included more than 100 unindicted co-conspirators, a status that several charities challenged as overreaching by the government.
"For many years, the Holy Land Foundation used the guise of charity to raise and funnel millions of dollars to the infrastructure of the Hamas terror organization," said J. Patrick Rowan, assistant attorney general for national security. "This prosecution demonstrates our resolve to ensure that humanitarian relief efforts are not used as a mechanism to disguise and enable support for terrorist groups."
In the course of the trial, defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had wrongfully targeted philanthropically minded people who wanted to support schools and hospitals in Palestinian territories devastated by conflict with Israel. They drew in part on arguments by civil liberties advocates, who maintain that prosecutors sometimes exploit laws designed to crack down on material support to terrorists to criminalize activities protected by the First Amendment.
The Holy Land verdicts come a year after the first case dissolved in a mistrial. The government's record in prosecutions involving the material support of terrorist networks has been checkered, as questions have arisen about the proper use of informants and whether authorities arrested suspects without enough evidence.
This time around, after enduring months of second-guessing after the Holy Land mistrial, government lawyers pared their evidence and limited the number of witnesses they presented to the jury, which deliberated for eight days.
Earlier yesterday, the convictions of three men with ties to al-Qaeda were upheld in New York. They were convicted for their roles in the 1998 bombings of embassy buildings in Kenya and Tanzania. The plots killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans, and injured thousands.
The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, led by Judge José A. Cabranes, unanimously rejected defense claims of insufficient evidence and violations of the Classified Information Procedures Act. Cabranes was joined by Judges Jon O. Newman and Wilfred Feinberg.
The defendants, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali and Wadih el-Hage, are serving lengthy prison sentences in a supermax prison facility in Colorado. They were convicted in 2001.
Attorneys for Hage, who had been a close associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, asserted that government investigators improperly collected evidence through wiretaps of his land-based and cellular phones from August 1996 to August 1997. They also argued that federal agents did not secure appropriate warrants to search his apartment in Nairobi. Because Hage is a naturalized U.S. citizen, the defense said, the government should have sought court permission before taking such intrusive steps.
The appeals court panel disagreed, ruling that "we see no merit in this challenge" and finding that the search was "reasonable under the circumstances presented here."
In a conclusion that legal experts say could have implications for other challenges to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the panel ruled that U.S. courts could admit evidence obtained through warrantless overseas searches of American citizens, but that the searches must be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
"The decision of the Court of Appeals . . . is one further measure of justice for the victims of those attacks," U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Source: Washington Post
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 25, 2008; Page A06
A federal jury in Dallas convicted five men with ties to a prominent Muslim charity of scores of criminal charges yesterday, handing the U.S. government a significant victory in its largest terrorism financing trial.
The verdicts against former leaders of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once ranked as the country's largest Muslim charitable organization, came only hours after a federal appeals court panel in New York upheld criminal convictions of three men accused of helping plot deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
Together, the developments strengthened the Justice Department's power to choke the sources of funding that help fuel terrorist schemes -- and to use warrantless electronic surveillance to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens suspected of engaging in international conspiracies.
Yet the victories in cases first filed as long as a decade ago underscore the lengthy path through the criminal justice system, which has afforded the government a mixed record in terrorism prosecutions.
Dennis M. Lormel, a former chief of the FBI's terrorist financing operation section, said the guilty verdicts on the 108 charges in the Holy Land trial amounted to a "validation" of the government's approach and encouraged his former colleagues to aggressively pursue similar investigations.
But Lormel said the most critical, practical development may have come in December 2001, when authorities raided the charity's headquarters in Richardson, Tex., and seized its assets.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials accused Holy Land of funneling more than $12 million to the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The original case against Holy Land and its leaders included more than 100 unindicted co-conspirators, a status that several charities challenged as overreaching by the government.
"For many years, the Holy Land Foundation used the guise of charity to raise and funnel millions of dollars to the infrastructure of the Hamas terror organization," said J. Patrick Rowan, assistant attorney general for national security. "This prosecution demonstrates our resolve to ensure that humanitarian relief efforts are not used as a mechanism to disguise and enable support for terrorist groups."
In the course of the trial, defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had wrongfully targeted philanthropically minded people who wanted to support schools and hospitals in Palestinian territories devastated by conflict with Israel. They drew in part on arguments by civil liberties advocates, who maintain that prosecutors sometimes exploit laws designed to crack down on material support to terrorists to criminalize activities protected by the First Amendment.
The Holy Land verdicts come a year after the first case dissolved in a mistrial. The government's record in prosecutions involving the material support of terrorist networks has been checkered, as questions have arisen about the proper use of informants and whether authorities arrested suspects without enough evidence.
This time around, after enduring months of second-guessing after the Holy Land mistrial, government lawyers pared their evidence and limited the number of witnesses they presented to the jury, which deliberated for eight days.
Earlier yesterday, the convictions of three men with ties to al-Qaeda were upheld in New York. They were convicted for their roles in the 1998 bombings of embassy buildings in Kenya and Tanzania. The plots killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans, and injured thousands.
The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, led by Judge José A. Cabranes, unanimously rejected defense claims of insufficient evidence and violations of the Classified Information Procedures Act. Cabranes was joined by Judges Jon O. Newman and Wilfred Feinberg.
The defendants, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali and Wadih el-Hage, are serving lengthy prison sentences in a supermax prison facility in Colorado. They were convicted in 2001.
Attorneys for Hage, who had been a close associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, asserted that government investigators improperly collected evidence through wiretaps of his land-based and cellular phones from August 1996 to August 1997. They also argued that federal agents did not secure appropriate warrants to search his apartment in Nairobi. Because Hage is a naturalized U.S. citizen, the defense said, the government should have sought court permission before taking such intrusive steps.
The appeals court panel disagreed, ruling that "we see no merit in this challenge" and finding that the search was "reasonable under the circumstances presented here."
In a conclusion that legal experts say could have implications for other challenges to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the panel ruled that U.S. courts could admit evidence obtained through warrantless overseas searches of American citizens, but that the searches must be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
"The decision of the Court of Appeals . . . is one further measure of justice for the victims of those attacks," U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Source: Washington Post
Sabtu, 19 Mei 2012
Toronto non-profit raised millions for Tamil Tigers
Stewart Bell, National Post
A Toronto non-profit group wired more than $3-million to overseas bank accounts, some of them linked to the Tamil Tigers, before it was shut down by the government in June for alleged terrorist financing, says an RCMP report released yesterday.
The report, marked "Secret" but unsealed by order of a Federal Court judge, provides the first detailed look at the banking activities of the World Tamil Movement (WTM), a Toronto-based group accused of bankrolling Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers guerrillas.
Most of the money, $1.9-million, went to an account at the Bumiputra Commerce Bank in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that the RCMP report says "is utilized as a vehicle to forward money to the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] from Canada."
The 83-page financial report is the fruit of two years of analysis of banking records seized by Canadian anti-terrorism police who are investigating a financial network run by supporters of the Tamil Tigers that allegedly raised money in Canada to buy arms for the guerrillas.
"The bank records seized ... demonstrate that the World Tamil Movement has developed an elaborate machine like entity that moves throughout the Greater Toronto Area collecting funds with extreme proficiency," the police report says.
Stockwell Day, the Public Safety Minister, announced on June 16 that his government had added the WTM to Ottawa's official list of terrorist groups, alongside the likes of Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. The WTM is the first Canadian community group to be listed.
The WTM has denied any involvement in terrorist fundraising and vowed to challenge the government's decision, and at a large outdoor rally in Toronto on July 5, Tamils waved Tamil Tigers flags and endorsed a statement condemning Ottawa's decision to ban the WTM.
The Minister has accused the WTM of transferring money to LTTE bank accounts in Sri Lanka, but the RCMP's Feb. 1, 2008, financial report paints a more detailed picture of a complex network made up of 20 Canadian bank accounts.
Five banks held the accounts: Toronto Dominion, Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank, CIBC and the National Bank of Canada. The Canadian account holders wired money regularly to accounts in Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Tamil Tigers-controlled areas of Sri Lanka.
RCMP Corporal Deanna Hill, the author of the police report, wrote that the WTM's financial set-up was "congruent with the money laundering techniques often employed by organized crime groups.
"I also believe that the number of accounts alone demonstrate that the World Tamil Movement has utilized the Canadian banking system to raise funds in a manner that is best suited to financing the terrorist activities of the LTTE."
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for 25 years for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority, which has faced discrimination under the island's Sinhalese majority.
In addition to fighting a conventional guerrilla war, however, the Tigers also employ terrorist tactics, such as suicide bombings and political assassinations, which has landed them on international terrorist lists, Canada's included.
The RCMP began investigating the Tamil Tigers' Canadian fundraising network in 2002, focusing on the WTM's large head office in Toronto and its smaller branch offices in Montreal and Vancouver. Police raided the Toronto and Montreal offices in 2006.
Police seized letters from the Tamil Tigers leadership thanking Canada for its donations, explaining how the money had been used to purchase weapons, and asking for more. But much of the police evidence appears to have come from a study of bank accounts held by the WTM and its officers.
The Project Osaluki financial report claims the WTM's most lucrative fundraising method was a pre-authorized payment program, in which the group persuaded hundreds of its supporters to sign forms allowing money to be withdrawn from their bank accounts each month.
The WTM took in up to $763,000 a year using the payment scheme. On a single day in 2005, the WTM withdrew $63,528 from 1,582 bank accounts. "It is obvious from the amounts collected with this method that the pre-authorized payment scheme is effective, timely and spares valued resources," says the RCMP report.
Most of the forms had been signed in Canada but police also interviewed witnesses who said they had signed them at Tamil Tigers checkpoints in Sri Lanka. "Upon their return to Canada, these persons were visited by representatives of the World Tamil Movement to exact the collection of the monthly stipend," Cpl. Hill wrote.
In addition, the WTM made money through bake sales, car washes, newspaper sales, merchandise sales and festivals, the report says. "To date, the total amount of Canadian dollars that have been forwarded to accounts internationally from accounts controlled by the World Tamil Movement in Canada is $3,101,803.33."
Source: National Post
A Toronto non-profit group wired more than $3-million to overseas bank accounts, some of them linked to the Tamil Tigers, before it was shut down by the government in June for alleged terrorist financing, says an RCMP report released yesterday.
The report, marked "Secret" but unsealed by order of a Federal Court judge, provides the first detailed look at the banking activities of the World Tamil Movement (WTM), a Toronto-based group accused of bankrolling Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers guerrillas.
Most of the money, $1.9-million, went to an account at the Bumiputra Commerce Bank in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that the RCMP report says "is utilized as a vehicle to forward money to the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] from Canada."
The 83-page financial report is the fruit of two years of analysis of banking records seized by Canadian anti-terrorism police who are investigating a financial network run by supporters of the Tamil Tigers that allegedly raised money in Canada to buy arms for the guerrillas.
"The bank records seized ... demonstrate that the World Tamil Movement has developed an elaborate machine like entity that moves throughout the Greater Toronto Area collecting funds with extreme proficiency," the police report says.
Stockwell Day, the Public Safety Minister, announced on June 16 that his government had added the WTM to Ottawa's official list of terrorist groups, alongside the likes of Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. The WTM is the first Canadian community group to be listed.
The WTM has denied any involvement in terrorist fundraising and vowed to challenge the government's decision, and at a large outdoor rally in Toronto on July 5, Tamils waved Tamil Tigers flags and endorsed a statement condemning Ottawa's decision to ban the WTM.
The Minister has accused the WTM of transferring money to LTTE bank accounts in Sri Lanka, but the RCMP's Feb. 1, 2008, financial report paints a more detailed picture of a complex network made up of 20 Canadian bank accounts.
Five banks held the accounts: Toronto Dominion, Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank, CIBC and the National Bank of Canada. The Canadian account holders wired money regularly to accounts in Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Tamil Tigers-controlled areas of Sri Lanka.
RCMP Corporal Deanna Hill, the author of the police report, wrote that the WTM's financial set-up was "congruent with the money laundering techniques often employed by organized crime groups.
"I also believe that the number of accounts alone demonstrate that the World Tamil Movement has utilized the Canadian banking system to raise funds in a manner that is best suited to financing the terrorist activities of the LTTE."
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for 25 years for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority, which has faced discrimination under the island's Sinhalese majority.
In addition to fighting a conventional guerrilla war, however, the Tigers also employ terrorist tactics, such as suicide bombings and political assassinations, which has landed them on international terrorist lists, Canada's included.
The RCMP began investigating the Tamil Tigers' Canadian fundraising network in 2002, focusing on the WTM's large head office in Toronto and its smaller branch offices in Montreal and Vancouver. Police raided the Toronto and Montreal offices in 2006.
Police seized letters from the Tamil Tigers leadership thanking Canada for its donations, explaining how the money had been used to purchase weapons, and asking for more. But much of the police evidence appears to have come from a study of bank accounts held by the WTM and its officers.
The Project Osaluki financial report claims the WTM's most lucrative fundraising method was a pre-authorized payment program, in which the group persuaded hundreds of its supporters to sign forms allowing money to be withdrawn from their bank accounts each month.
The WTM took in up to $763,000 a year using the payment scheme. On a single day in 2005, the WTM withdrew $63,528 from 1,582 bank accounts. "It is obvious from the amounts collected with this method that the pre-authorized payment scheme is effective, timely and spares valued resources," says the RCMP report.
Most of the forms had been signed in Canada but police also interviewed witnesses who said they had signed them at Tamil Tigers checkpoints in Sri Lanka. "Upon their return to Canada, these persons were visited by representatives of the World Tamil Movement to exact the collection of the monthly stipend," Cpl. Hill wrote.
In addition, the WTM made money through bake sales, car washes, newspaper sales, merchandise sales and festivals, the report says. "To date, the total amount of Canadian dollars that have been forwarded to accounts internationally from accounts controlled by the World Tamil Movement in Canada is $3,101,803.33."
Source: National Post
Kamis, 17 Mei 2012
PA crackdown has Hamas reducing cash transfers to West Bank
By Avi Issacharoff
Hamas has dramatically reduced its money transfers to various charitable organizations in the West Bank formerly linked to the group, as the Palestinian Authority continues to assert its control over those organizations.
Hamas had used the charities to transfer money to its operatives in the West Bank and to strengthen its standing among the Palestinian public. Since the beginning of this year, the PA has systematically installed new managements at the charities, which then transferred the organizations' assets to the PA itself.
In addition, the PA has appointed religious leaders affiliated with the Ramallah government to the Waqf Islamic religious trust, which was previously run by clerics identified with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas' parent movement. This leadership change has forced Hamas to stem the flow of money to the charities it once funded.
The global economic downturn has also slowed the money flow, as major donors in the Persian Gulf have transferred smaller amounts into Hamas' coffers. Tighter Israeli supervision of the charities and more familiarity with Hamas' money-laundering techniques also played a role in the reduction.
In addition, Palestinian security services recently seized several million shekels destined for Hamas-affiliated social services organizations.
Source: Haaretz
Hamas has dramatically reduced its money transfers to various charitable organizations in the West Bank formerly linked to the group, as the Palestinian Authority continues to assert its control over those organizations.
Hamas had used the charities to transfer money to its operatives in the West Bank and to strengthen its standing among the Palestinian public. Since the beginning of this year, the PA has systematically installed new managements at the charities, which then transferred the organizations' assets to the PA itself.
In addition, the PA has appointed religious leaders affiliated with the Ramallah government to the Waqf Islamic religious trust, which was previously run by clerics identified with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas' parent movement. This leadership change has forced Hamas to stem the flow of money to the charities it once funded.
The global economic downturn has also slowed the money flow, as major donors in the Persian Gulf have transferred smaller amounts into Hamas' coffers. Tighter Israeli supervision of the charities and more familiarity with Hamas' money-laundering techniques also played a role in the reduction.
In addition, Palestinian security services recently seized several million shekels destined for Hamas-affiliated social services organizations.
Source: Haaretz
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