Islamic State increasingly relies on correspondent ties between U.S. and overseas banks to transfer funds and acquire supplies following a string of military defeats in Iraq and Syria, an FBI section chief warned Tuesday. In October, Syrian rebels and Kurdish forces supported by the United States pushed Islamic State out of Raqqa, the group’s self-proclaimed capital since 2014 and the center of its efforts to rule territory and collect revenue from a range of illicit activities, including oil theft, human trafficking and extortion. Islamic State’s financial patterns have changed since October, but its goals remain the same, Jeffrey Cannon, head...
The recent U.S. indictment of a 27-year-old Pakistani-American woman accused of supporting the Islamic State group in Syria shows how terrorist organizations use a variety of financial products and channels to raise and move funds, say sources.
Financial institutions should be mindful of any number of strategies that retreating Islamic State fighters may employ to move their funds into and through the formal banking system as the terrorist group continues yielding ground in Iraq and Syria, say analysts.
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