Tweet Listed terrorist group takes over energy infrastructure The Security Council of the United Nations today called on its members not to engage in financial or commercial transactions with listed terrorist groups, in particular involving the sale of oil from Syria or Iraq that would involve the financing of terrorism. Anti-terrorism and sanctions laws In […]
Tweet In a weird case of real life emulating fiction, the mass hunt for the alleged prospective suicide bomber, the so-called black widow of Chechnya, Ruzana Ibragimova, before the Sochi Olympic Games is playing out a little like the film From Paris With Love, the fictional story of a female terrorist in France aligned with […]
Tweet NSA program legal and necessary for counter-terrorism A U.S. federal court ruled today ruled that the National Security Agency (“NSA“) collection of personal telecommunications records is not only legal but is a valuable tool necessary to counter the threat of terrorism. According to various media reports, the NSA collects, views, categorizes and retains our […]
Tweet The independent reviewer of the U.K.’s terrorism legislation has released his latest report (the “Report“) highlighting terrorism developments over the last 12 months in the U.K. Some interesting parts of the Report are as follows: Terrorist acts targeted against Jewish people According to the Report, there were several terrorist incidents in the U.K. principally […]
Tweet The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF“) has released its list of high risk jurisdictions for money laundering and counter terrorist financing. Reporting entities are generally required to apply enhanced due diligence when dealing with funds from jurisdictions that are high risk. The high risk countries are: Vietnam Syria Iran Kenya Ecuador Korea Ethiopia Indonesia […]
Tweet The Basel Institute on Governance has published an interesting compilation of its view of how countries rank as money laundering and terrorist financing jurisdictions of risk. To the extent the ranking may be accurate, it may be obviously helpful to businesses engaged in international trade and commerce and to agencies that are required to […]
Tweet The Auditor General of Canada, Michael Ferguson, released his Spring 2013 Report (the “Report“) today and among the key findings, found that $3.1 billion in funding to programs to combat terrorism in Canada is unaccounted for. Moreover, the Report found that some of the $12.9 billion approved for fighting terrorism in Canada went to pay […]
Tweet As anticipated, the federal Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (the “Act“) came into force in Canada on March 13, 2013 without much fanfare. The Act creates a cause of action that allows victims of terrorism to sue natural and legal persons (and of particular interest, listed entities) and certain foreign states, in a Canadian court […]
Tweet The New York Court of Appeals ruled this week that the use of a New York bank account by a listed entity (an entity identified as a terrorist one) is sufficient to establish jurisdiction for American victims of the listed entity’s terrorist activities to claim compensation. The bank in question is a Beirut bank […]
Tweet U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, was in Europe this week warning government agencies against the increase in kidnappings for ransom by terrorist organizations (listed entities). In the past decade, al Qaeda is estimated to have received ransom payments of US$120 million from kidnappings that occurred mostly in North Africa, […]