Charity or terrorist financing? Tips to identify
Terrorist financing may often be carried out through charitable organisations, therefore compliance officers should be cautious as regards some tips to identify terrorist financing.
Below is the list of “red flags†of terrorist Financing carried out through charities:
- the name is very similar to the name of a well-known or long-established existing charitable organisation;
- the activities of the charity are regulated on a limited basis, or even are not regulated by local authorities;
- the entity has not been officially registered with regulators as a charity;
-Â the objective of the charity is either unknown or unclear from published materials;
- the charity has frequently changed physical address, mailing addresses, or often replaced staff;
- the extremely limited amount of information that can be obtained on the charity through the Internet or from other public source;
- trustees, officers and directors also hold similar positions in other charities;
- the charity is closely connected with a political or religious organisation or party;
- funds transfers to other countries;
- cash transfers to other non-charitable organisations;
- an attempt at an audit of charity funds fails;
- the end recipients of the funding as well as their aims and activities are unknown.
The presence of at least several of the points indicated above should be a reason good enough to initiate an immediate investigation of the charity.