In the wake of the relaxation of international financial and trade sanctions against Iran’s regime, an international anti-money laundering group wants government financial intelligence agencies to give extra scrutiny to transactions and business relationships involving Iran.
Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday that it is “particularly and exceptionally concerned” about the Iranian regime’s “failure to address the risk of terrorist financing and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the international financial system.”
Since 2009, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has called for its members and the international community to institute countermeasures to protect their respective financial sectors and the global financial system from the risks – in particular the terrorist financing threat – posed by Iran’s regime.
The FATF has strengthened its language and called for countermeasures against Iran’s regime. The group said that if Tehran did not step up its anti-money laundering efforts, FATF would consider asking its members to strengthen “countermeasures” directed at Iran’s regime as soon as June.
The Iranian regime has long been involved in money laundering by establishing front companies in other countries to skirt international sanctions imposed for its illegal nuclear weapons program.
In one such case revealed last year, at least $1 billion in cash was smuggled into Iran. According to Reuters the money has been illegally smuggled into Iran via a range of front companies with nearly half of these funds channelled through Iraq.
Interviews by Reuters with Iranian regime officials and Western diplomatic and intelligence sources show a bigger smuggling effort by Tehran, as well as the routes and methods used — details not previously reported.
These sources at the time said at least $1 billion in U.S. bank notes had been smuggled into Iran in a span of a few months, with the Iranian central bank playing an important role.
A Western diplomat who followed Iranian affairs was quoted in that report as saying that Iran’s central bank was a driving force in these illegal efforts.
