Suspected terrorist financing cases surge
Steep increase in alleged funding, money laundering
Canada’s financial intelligence unit has reported a sharp increase in suspected terrorist financing cases to the government’s three top national security agencies over the past two years, according to figures released by the office of Finance Minister Joe Oliver.
The previously unreleased data shows that FINTRAC disclosed the financial information most often to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, followed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada Border Services Agency, which more than doubled its use of such intelligence.
Disclosures to CSIS rose to 193 from 136 two years ago. Reports sent to the RCMP climbed to 134 from 89 during that same period, while those made to the CBSA jumped to 30, from 14 in the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Overall, FINTRAC reporting on terror financing and national security almost doubled.
Such an agency-by-agency breakdown has never before been publicly released, but the finance minister’s office provided the figures to the National Post to draw attention to what Oliver views as the hidden side of terrorism: the behind-the-scenes financing that supports violent extremist groups.
“I don’t think that’s surprising,” Christine Duhaime, a lawyer who specializes in terrorist financing and money laundering, said Sunday. She said FINTRAC was receiving more terrorism-related information from financial institutions and was passing it on to national security agencies.
Another reason for the increase was the growing number of investigations into Canadians planning to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, she said. To prevent them from leaving, authorities have been looking at indicators such as the purchase of airline tickets, the emptying of bank accounts and the movement of money to hot spots.
On Monday morning, Oliver was to address the issue and the government’s response during his keynote at the Anti-Money Launder and Financial Crime Conference in Toronto. A session on Tuesday will deal specifically with the financing methods of ISIL and other “emerging terror groups.”
Launched in 2000, FINTRAC, which stands for Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, produces intelligence on money movements related to money laundering, terrorism and national security. It passes its findings to other agencies for investigation.
In total, FINTRAC made 298 disclosures about terrorism and security in the fiscal year that ended in March 2014 — up from 159, the minister’s officer said. There was also a steep increase in the number of cases that were considered both terrorist financing and money-laundering.
Testifying at the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence last October, FINTRAC director Gérald Cossette said his agency’s disclosures were “often based on hundreds or even thousands of financial transactions reported by Canadian businesses.” He said the intelligence helped “establish links between individuals and groups in Canada and abroad suspected of financing and supporting terrorist activities.”
For example, FINTRAC was involved in the investigation that resulted in the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy Canada being stripped of its charity status and placed on Canada’s list of terrorist groups. The former Toronto-area charity had donated millions of dollars to groups and individuals linked to Hamas.
“Our information is used by enforcement partners to obtain a production order, a search warrant and other things. It is not evidence. It’s not like what the police do, which is build a case to demonstrate that something has occurred. We are in the intelligence business, so we signal potential things. How that information is used by the police forces is their own decision,” Cossette said.
In December, the RCMP charged a 15-year-old with holding up a Montreal convenience store with a knife, alleging he wanted money to finance joining ISIS. An Ottawa activist, Awso Peshdary, was arrested in February for allegedly providing financial support to Canadian ISIL recruits.
“Men are in need of jihad and jihad is in need of money,” Abu Usama alSomali, believed to be a Canadian ISIL member named Farah Shirdon, posted on Twitter recently. The former Calgary resident has repeatedly pleaded for donations.
But despite sometimes overt fundraising by terrorist groups and their front organizations, charges are rare in Canada.
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson told the Senate committee last month that while FINTRAC reporting “does suggest and elevate suspicion in these areas,” building cases was hard.