Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies has obtained from its own sources, in Washington, Baghdad, and Irbil, special information about the arrest of the financier of the terrorist organization ISIS “Amer Salem Hamza” the owner of the banking companies, in a second quality operation , more serious and deeper than the first operation , as in a careful coordination between the Iraqi National Intelligence and the UAE intelligence, Amer Salem Hamza was lured into Iraq, after monitoring and controlling the movement of funds financed the terrorist organization ISIS and the headquarter of his banking offices in Iraq, the UAE and Turkey, and a lot of banking offices in Baghdad and Arbil, whose investments are estimated at hundred of millions.
After the investigation, Hamza confessed to the rest of the network’s members “exchange holders” involved in the financing of terrorism, most of its members are spread in the Kurdistan region.
After the confession, a joint security cell of the KRG, the “Special Forces”, “Kurdish Security”, the Iraqi government, and a committee of US coalition forces were formed to arrest the involved network and were actually arrested and are now in the hands of the Iraqi government.
Drying up the sources of terrorism:
Terrorism, as one of the most serious epidemics affecting the body of societies, needs treatment to be eradicated forever. Terrorism poses a threat to Iraq, to any country it appears in, and to the international community as a whole, so states continue to fight it by all means. Great powers such as America, Russia, Britain and France fight these militias with planes, vehicles and weapons. In fact, they can not be defeated if their sources of funding are not drained up and their sources of financial support removed.
The monitoring and follow-up of this money is very important and it may be used in money laundering and the financing of terrorist groups, especially those money exported abroad, pose a threat to the stability of many countries and societies. Many of these funds went to train terrorist groups, open training camps for them, and provide them with bombs, explosives and explosive belts.
The exit and transfer of funds to and from the state without a check or monitoring, which makes the money in a criminal suspicion, so it is necessary to monitor the funds and hold them accountable, and to put the audit reports at the accounting table, so as not to be exploited to the detriment of Iraqi society, and lead to fuel the hatred Sectarian conflict.
The first operation :
A company run by 10 people, headed by Fawaz Mohammed Jubair al-Rawi, was arrested and taken from the city of Karbala as a HQ for it , this was done during an operation carried out between the seventh and ninth of October in Baghdad and the city of Erbil.
The details include the remittances operations that financed an organization ISIS by the company, which is owned by the international financier of the organization Fawaz Mohammed Jubair al-Rawi and Co., who has financed terrorist organizations with hundreds of millions of dollars and is based in Karbala.
The documents confirm that al-Rawi has supported the terrorist organizations with funds, by relying on investments estimated at $ 280 million in the field of real estate, fish farming, car trade and cultivation of Indian cannabis plants near the capital Baghdad. Al-Rawi has ties with Iraqi figures running financial companies in the l Jordanian capital, Amman.
The documents of the Central Bank show details and names of the members of the “al-Rawi Financial Network” whose members were captured by the Iraqi elite forces, the Kurdistan Regional Government and supported by the US-led coalition forces through a qualitative operation at different times and in different parts of the cities of Baghdad and Erbil.
In December 2016, the US Treasury decided to freeze potential assets of two companies in USA and prevent any Americans from dealing with them – namely they are : Gold Chain(Selselat al-Dhahab) company in Iraq and Hanifa money Exchange company in Albu – Kamal, Syria, and their manager , Fawaz Mohamed Jubeir Al-Rawi, They are described as the “Al-Rawi Financial Network”, which played an important role in remittances by helping to transfer money to the terrorist organization al-Qa’ida and ISIS.
Despite the US Treasury’s decision in 2016, the Central Bank of Iraq issued a decision freezing and confiscating the funds of the “Gold Series” on 7-3-2017, after informing it to suspend its work in Iraq from the date of 14-2-2017 because of the it is blacklisted by the United States, in accordance with an earlier decision of the Bank on 29-1-2017.
An economic expert accused, “Organized Lobbies” working under the cover of the bureaucracy in the Iraqi financial institutions, delayed the decision to confiscate the funds of the Al-Rawi financial network, allowing it to withdraw and transfer nearly $ (70) million, through multiple places and outlets, before the decision to freeze and confiscation of their funds.
The money-laundering expert, who declined to be identified, said the money transferred before freezing and confiscating, the ones who received it can be accused with the same charge: financing terrorism.
According to the Central Bank’s decisions, the decision to “freeze terrorist funds” against members of the “gold chain” earned a peremptory grade on 9-8-2017, based on indicators of the National Intelligence Service and other intelligence indicators.
The decision to “freeze of terrorist funds” No. (1) of 2017 issued by the Central Bank listed the names of the owners of the “Gold Series”, namely:
1- Bashar Mahdi Saleh Al-Ani / managing director.
2 – Mazen Mahmoud Mahmoud / Deputy managing director.
3. Ihsan Ali Abbas Al-Khazali / Member of the management Board.
4- Jalal Ali Abbas Al-Khazali / Member of the management Board.
5 – Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil Abdul Rahman / member of the management Board.
6 – Bassem Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil / member of the management Board.
7 – Mohammed Jawad Reza Al Ajili / member of the management Board.
8. Omar Kilan Mohammed Al-Qarghali / Member of the management Board .
9. Haitham Hussein Habib / Member of the management Board.
10. Jafar Hussein Kazem Al-Bahadli / Member of the management Board.
Iraqi Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies