Targeting Terrorist Funds
Cutting terrorists off from their funds
It does not take much money to fund a terrorist attack,
and terrorists are always looking for new ways to obtain
and transfer funds. The effort to disrupt the flow of
money to terrorists, both at home and internationally,
is an important element of counter-terrorism.
Since the September 11 attacks in the US, we have comprehensively
overhauled our strategy and practice in this area. Among
other measures, we have strengthened our legislation,
and developed new multi-agency structures.
What we've achieved so far:
- Numerous terrorist operations have been disrupted.
- Large amounts of cash have been seized under counter-terrorist
legislation and frozen under international obligations.
- The UK has fully implemented key anti-terrorist
resolutions from the United Nations Security Counsel,
which require all states to freeze terrorist finances.
Since the September 11 attacks, over 160 countries
and jurisdictions have taken concrete action to freeze
terrorist assets, and US$112 million has been frozen
worldwide.
- In the UK, both before and since September 11, we
have frozen the assets of over 100 organisations and
over 200 individuals, totalling some US$100 million.
The bulk of these assets have now been unfrozen and
made available to the current Government of Afghanistan.
Around US$500,000 of terrorist assets remain frozen
in the UK.
Making the UK a hostile environment for terrorists
- We will continue to track, freeze and disrupt terrorist
money flows, and we will use intelligence gained from
terrorist finance investigations to help develop valuable
insights into the methodology of terrorist operations.
- We will also continue to lead the way internationally
with our financial services industry outreach programme,
which allows government, law enforcement agencies,
prominent trade and industry bodies, and regulators
to engage quickly and coherently on counter-terrorist
finance issues.
The co-operation of the private sector is vital in
disrupting and combating terrorist financing, and we
are particularly grateful for the whole-hearted support
of the financial services industry.
Recovering the proceeds of crime
Terrorists also make money through organised crime.
We have recently introduced tough new powers for police
and customs officers to investigate and seize the money
that criminals make from, and intend to use, in crime.
These are the first of the new provisions to be implemented
under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The powers are
applicable to the proceeds of all crime, not just terrorism.
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