The Australian Connection: Money Laundering and Terror

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Terror groups are known to rely on money laundering operations to finance their activities. A recent operation by an Australian government taskforce has revealed the scope of money laundering operations within the country’s borders.

Project Eligo, Australia’s biggest money-laundering probe, has identified hundreds of Australians who helped launder drug money, funds from human trafficking, and other crimes to finance terror groups around the world. The investigation, which has uncovered forty money laundering operations in Australia, has so far seized $26 million in cash, seized $30 million worth in houses and other assets, and has intercepted drug shipments worth at least $530 million.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

The Age reports that dozens of “exchange houses,” or money laundering centers, in the Middle East and Asia are used to distribute the money to crime syndicates. At least one exchange house in Australia launders money for the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. In 2013, The U.S. Department of the Treasury identified two Lebanese exchange houses, Rmeiti Exchange and Halawi Exchange, as drug money launders fo Hezbollah.

According to HLS News Wire one method used to launder money involves foreign nationals and students who regularly engage in foreign bank transactions. In this case, crime figures deposit Australian drug money into the bank accounts of the victims, then request money from an overseas bank via the victims’ bank account. The scheme relies on infiltrating trust-based informal banking or remittance and exchange house services, which are common in China, the Middle East, and Vietnam.