Taliban sends tax bills to big telecom

The Taliban has demanded that four telecommunications companies operating in Afghanistan pay them a 10 percent.  This news from Agence France Presse suggests the Taliban is expanding the scope of their revenue dragnet.  The companies have not commented on whether or not they will give in to the Taliban’s demands, although AFP quotes one corporate source who sounded like they haven’t decided what to do yet.  The situation is resembles Somalia, where telecommunications companies have reportedly made payments to the terrorist group Al-Shabaab.

Afghan Taliban flex muscles with new telecom ‘tax’

By AFP

Published: January 18, 2016

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban have demanded a hefty new “protection tax” from Afghan mobile phone companies, industry and militant sources told AFP, as the resurgent group tightens its stranglehold on a rare successful business in a slumping war economy.

At a secret meeting last month near Quetta, the Taliban’s central leadership formally demanded the tax from representatives of four cellular companies in exchange for not damaging their sites or harming their employees.

The edict was motivated by an Afghan government announcement in October that it had amassed a windfall of 78 million Afghani within days of imposing an additional 10 per cent tax on operators, according to two telecom company officials who attended the meeting and a third industry executive privy to the information.

“They want us to pay the same amount paid to the government,” one of the officials who was at the gathering told AFP.

“We told them that this will kill our business, but they said: ‘This is the only way to guarantee your people are not harmed and your sites are not burned’,” he added.

A source in the Quetta Shura — the Taliban’s Pakistan-based leadership council — confirmed the meeting, telling AFP the group was waiting for a formal response from the companies.

“We told them: ‘It is our right to tax you if you want us to protect your (transmission) towers around Afghanistan’,” he said. “‘You will have to pay’.”

The militants have long targeted Afghanistan’s private telecom firms, kidnapping engineers, destroying transmission masts and forcing regular coverage blackouts in volatile areas to avoid detection of their fighters.

Local-level Taliban commanders have been known to extort from businesses operating in their areas, notably the telecom firms and logistics companies supplying Nato bases and Western-funded construction projects.

But this appears to be the first time the central leadership has formally demanded a levy from business enterprises, underscoring how they increasingly operate like a shadow government.

It also highlights the dangers of doing business in conflict-torn Afghanistan — particularly for the telecom industry, fast becoming a battleground in the Taliban’s war against the US-backed Afghan government.

The companies said to be at the meeting — Abu-Dhabi based Etisalat, South Africa’s MTN and homegrown firms Roshan and Afghan Wireless Communication Company — officially declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

But one of them confirmed the meeting and tax demand, voicing a mix of helplessness and frustration.

“Ten per cent tax to the Taliban? That means we will have to share our revenue information with a militant organisation,” a Kabul-based company representative told AFP.

“That’s just not feasible. We told them ‘no’.”

But one of the telecom officials who attended the Pakistan meeting said there was no escaping the Taliban edict, adding that the companies at best could wrangle a concession from the insurgents in future negotiations…

Sharia banker unseated for “militant financing”

A senior official of an Islamic bank in Bangladesh has been removed from his position by the country’s central bank over his support for Islamic militancy. The Dhaka Tribune reports that Nurul Islam, a deputy managing director of Islami Bank Bangladesh, is an ex-convict. Bangladesh’s finance ministry suspects Nurul Islam of “involvement in militant financing” and involvement “with the recent violence carried out by Jamaat-Shibir,” a radical Islamist student group. This development is further evidence of the connection between sharia finance and the funding of terrorism.  Prior Money Jihad coverage of the dangerous Islami Bank Bangladesh and its leadership can be found here.

Islami Bank DMD removed for having Jamaat ties

The central bank has removed Deputy Managing Director of Islami Bank Nurul Islam for his alleged involvement with Jamaat-e-Islami, the party which opposed the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.

Bangladesh Bank issued a letter in this regard yesterday. The decision came after the Finance Ministry asked the central bank governor to take action against the financial organisations linked to Jamaat.

A top officer of the central bank confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune that Nurul Islam had been removed on the ground that he was a convict and has cases against him.

The central bank issued the letter yesterday saying that a convict cannot hold such a high position. Moreover, the cases against him are yet to be disposed of.

The letter, however, did not mention about the issue of his Jamaat connection.

Bangladesh Bank last month detected 27 suspected terror financial transactions made by Islami Bank and put it under the scanner. Earlier, the bank was fined four times under the Anti-Money Laundering Act for militant financing.

Last year, the National Committee on Militancy Resistance and Prevention asked the central bank to ensure submission of the reports to the ministry on the expenditures of the Islamic banks and insurance companies.

Apart from the Finance Ministry, the Home Ministry too sent a letter to the central bank asking them to take action against Nurul Islam for his alleged involvement in militant financing. The ministry said they had found involvement of the banker with the recent violence carried out by Jamaat-Shibir.

The central bank launched an inquiry against the accused following the Home Ministry’s instructions. The inspection team was led by Dipankar Bhattacharya, a deputy general manager of the central bank’s Bank Inspection Department 1.

The Home Ministry was concerned about Nurul Islam as he had been chosen for the managing director post to replace the existing MD, Mohammad Abdul Mannan, by the board of Islami Bank.

Police arrest 4 leftist terrorist thieves

Four Marxist guerrillas who were in the middle of an extortion operation have been arrested near Manilla. Police found an extortion letter in possession of the cell of the New People’s Army. The group may have been targeting the phone service company Globe Telecom.

The concept of “revolutionary taxation”—shaking down capitalists to fund revolutionary activities—is inspired by the writings of Marx, Engels, and Emile de Girardin.

From Inquirer Southern Luzon:

4 ‘revo tax’ collectors held in Cavite

By: Delfin T. Mallari Jr.

LUCENA CITY—Four suspected “revolutionary tax” collectors of the New People’s Army (NPA) were arrested by policemen in General Trias town in Cavite province on Monday, police said on Tuesday.

The four suspects were held after a brief chase in Barangay Javalera of the town around 12:30 a.m., according to the report released on Tuesday by the Cavite Provincial Police Office.

Insp. Artemio Cinco, head of of the General Trias police intelligence unit, said in a separate phone interview Tuesday that the suspects were revolutionary tax, or “revo tax,” collectors in the province.

“Based on our initial investigation they are on a revo tax collection mission,” Cinco said in a phone interview.

The Cavite police report identified the four as George Bruce, 33, from Lemery, Batangas province; Jose Nayve, 53, of GMA, Cavite; Romel Nuñez, 30, of Dasmariñas City, Cavite; and Armando Matres, 38, of Lipa City, Batangas.

The identities were provided by the suspects themselves, according to PO2 Christian Neil Cuevas, the case officer.

The report said PO1 Jonathan Dinglasan, a town policeman, happened to be nearby when one of the suspects, using an improvised explosive device, blew up a manhole cover of the Globe Telecom communication cables along Barangay Javalera.

After the bombing, the suspects escaped aboard a Nissan Urvan van (ZFD 262) but they were chased by Dinglasan who was then on his way home driving a private vehicle. While giving chase, Dinglasan informed the police community precinct in nearby Barangay Manggahan, through his mobile phone, of the incident.

The responding policemen blocked the road that forced the suspects to alight from the van and scamper toward a grassy area where they were eventually cornered by the lawmen.

When lawmen searched the van, they found a .45 cal. pistol, 106 live ammunition and four magazines; a 9mm pistol with 17 bullets and one magazine; two pieces of blasting caps, one detonator switch and manual, four energizer batteries and cable wires; eight units of mobile phones; one “extortion” letter addressed to an “Aling Adeling” with the letterhead “Bagong Hukbong Bayan” and other documents that police described as “subversive”…

5 terror finance predictions for 2016

• TrendMicro says “2016 will be the year of online extortion.” Rather than simply holding data for ransom, hackers will threaten to divulge personal information about users if a ransom isn’t paid. Cyber-criminals will use the psychology of fear to a greater extent than ever before through ransomware.
• Enhanced financial monitoring in EU. This is as much of a reflection on 2015 as it is a prediction for 2016, but second-generation Muslim immigrants will continue returning from the Syrian front to Europe. Domestic intelligence services will be too under-resourced to monitor all of the jihadist returnees. A British psychic website goes as far as to predict a terrorist attempt to assassinate Chancellor Angela Merkel. While there is no way of predicting such a thing, it does seem that since Germany has been such a favored destination for Middle Eastern transients, Germany could very well be targeted by ISIS operatives for a major operation. German authorities would do well to beef up customs and border searches for the possibility of bulk smuggled cash and to increase monitoring by undercover agents of black market firearms purchases by suspected Islamists.
• Forecasters are predicting a modest rebound but a continued low price for oil in 2016. This will put pressure on the budgets of the Arab Gulf monarchies. It should also mean that they’ll have less money to export Wahhabism and fund Islamist rebellions.
• Expect Washington to promulgate more counter-terror finance regulations that paint with a broad brush. Compliance officer Doug Cornelius predicts that “FinCEN will come out with new regulations imposing anti-money laundering requirements on investment advisors and fund managers.”
• Taliban spending spurt. There are mixed predictions for the Taliban in 2016. Some analysts predict that the Taliban will topple the Afghan government again, while others predict that the leadership scuffle in the wake of Mullah Omar’s reported death, the rival appeal of ISIS in Afghanistan, the strength of Afghan security forces, could weaken the Taliban or force it to a negotiated settlement. Sensing that it’s do or die for the Taliban, Money Jihad predicts they’ll employ more aggressive and audacious tactics, and they’ll be willing to expend hundreds of millions of dollars for their militant operations in 2016.

ISIS demands jizya from Swedes

Not so long ago, demands for jizya—a tax required by the Koran against non-Muslims—occurred in countries like Pakistan and Syria. Now it’s happening in Sweden. It’s good to hear that law enforcement is taking it “very seriously.” Hopefully that means there will be arrests, trials, and convictions of the perpetrators soon.

From RaymondIbrahim.com on Dec. 13:

According to a new report published yesterday, December 12, by RT Arabic, the “Swedish government is in a state of panic after dozens of its citizens received threatening letters signed by ISIS and offering them three choices, either conversion to Islam, payment of jizya, or decapitation.”

The letters warned their recipients that they had three days to decide.

Written in the Swedish language, the letters appeared yesterday on dozens of homes in different cities at the same time.  Police are reportedly taking the threat “very seriously.”  Among other regions, letters appeared in the cities of Ronneba, Sigtuna, Vstroes and the capital Stockholm.

10 biggest terror finance news stories of 2015

1. Funding of Paris attacks

The November 2015 attackers paid for $32,000 worth of pre-attack operations including hotel lodging and car rentals through anonymous prepaid cards purchased in Belgium. Payments were loaded in small increments; rules for prepaid cards allow for reloading up to $2,500 without identity verification. Although the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is responsible for the attacks and the training of several attackers, the precise source of the $32,000 is less clear. Money for travel appears to have become available after a stopover in Greece.

2. Nuclear deal will release billions to Iran

The nuclear agreement that President Obama signed will release $100 billion to $150 billion of frozen assets to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. Hopefully the asset thaw will get gummed up in court while attorneys seek to collect the compensation that is owed to the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism first.

3. Wahhabi funding monarch takes power

Saudi Arabia has crowned a new king, Salman bin Abdulaziz, who started his career in public service by bankrolling the exportation of radical Wahhabism throughout the Islamic world. We will be contending with well-funded terrorist groups for as long as men such as Salman rule Arabia.

4. Coalition bombs ISIS oil fields

According to news reports, the U.S. is increasing pressure against ISIS’s financial assets by bombing oil fields in their territory. If true, the bombing means that the Obama administration has begun to recognize that it is worth destroying oil infrastructure to deprive ISIS of funding even if it means it will be harder to rebuild the infrastructure when and if ISIS retreats.

5. Son of terror victim sues wire transfer company

The son of a slain Somali politician and singing star is suing the money transfer company Dahabshiil for its alleged involvement in issuing a bounty for the singer’s murder. Saado Ali Warsame had sung a song denouncing Dahabshiil as a financier of terror and a profiteer from inter-tribal conflict.

6. Jihadists in Yemen fund Charlie Hebdo assassins

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) gave $20,000 to future Charlie Hebdo attacker Said Kouachi before he and his brother left Yemen in August 2011. The foreign funding helps explain how a group of underemployed ex-cons were able to buy AK-47s for their January 2015 attacks and pay for Said Kouachi’s international travels.

7. PA and PLO owe damages for terror attacks

A jury found the Palestinian Authority and the PLO liable for terrorist attacks with American victims in the early 2000s, with damages set at $656 million in Sokolow v. PLO. A federal judge set $10 million bond while the PA and PLO appeal.

8. Taliban takes control of more turf

The Washington Post reports that the Taliban has taken control or maintains a significant presence in 30 percent of Afghanistan—the most territory it has occupied since 2001. The problem with this from a financial standpoint is that the Taliban lives off the land. One of their primary sources of income is taxation on commercial activity in the areas they control. More turf means more money.

9. Arab Bank settles with terror victims

Arab Bank PLC provided client services to Hamas affiliates which funded terrorist attacks against Israel. After years of lawsuits, the settlement was reached between the bank and American victims of these terrorist attacks, possibly for $1 billion. Together with the Sokolow, these cases show that legal tactics can be used effectively to hit terrorists where it hurts: their wallets.

10. Debt-financing of San Bernadino attack

Syed Rizwan Farook took out a $28,000 debt consolidation loan weeks before waging an assault against his victims. This method of financing attacks is particularly popular among jihadists living in Western countries where easy credit is, well, easy.