“The individuals and company being designated today played a crucial role connecting ISIS with a network of international donors and enabled ISIS to access the financial system in the Middle East,” reads a statement from the US Treasury.
Alaa Khanfurah is accused of transferring funds to ISIS members throughout Syria from Khanfurah’s Turkey-based money service and sending thousands of dollars to ISIS financial facilitators.
Idris Ali Awad al-Fay, who is currently in Iraqi custody, is accused of using the “Turkey-based Al-Fay Company to facilitate the global distribution of currency on behalf of the terrorist group.” He previously held leadership positions in both al-Qa’ida and ISIS, according to the Treasury.
Al-Fay Company was also designated for its activity as an intermediary between foreign donors and ISIS, including members being held in al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria.
The third person sanctioned is Ibrahim Ali Awad al-Fay, brother to Idris, who managed Al-Fay Company in the absence of his sibling. Both brothers have sent funds to ISIS, the Treasury stated.
According to a Pentagon report, the US estimate ISIS has “probably tens of millions of dollars” in cash reserves and operates a network of couriers smuggling cash between Iraq and Syria and transfers fund “often through logistical hubs in Turkey.”
Despite the territorial defeat is ISIS, the group “remains active and maintains connections to the financial system,” the US Department of State said in a statement released shortly after the Treasury announcement.
“In countries throughout the Middle East, ISIS has relied on key money services business operators, like those designated today that allow ISIS to obfuscate its transactions. The Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS will continue to target ISIS’ illicit financial activities to include its disbursement of millions of dollars in cash reserves across the region,” it added.
ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Remnants of the group have returned to earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, extorting money from vulnerable rural populations, and carrying out bomb attacks.
