Bilerek ya da bilmeyerek, yardım kuruluşları veya kâr amacı gütmeyen kuruluşlar terörizm amaçlı fonların sağlanması ve aklanması için araç olarak işlev görmektedir. Yardım kuruluşları veya kar amacı gütmeyen kuruluşlar özellikle terörün finansmanı için kötüye kullanıma açık bazı özelliklere sahiplerdir. Bunlar sırasıyla:
■ Kamunun güvenini kullanırlar
■ Önemli fon kaynaklarına erişim hakkına sahiplerdir
■ Genellikle nakde dayalıdırlar
■ Genellikle terörist faaliyetlere en çok maruz kalan bölgelerde veya bu bölgelerin yakınlarında küresel olarak varlıklarını sürdürürler. Çok az düzenlemeye tabidirler veya hiçbir düzenlemeye tabi değillerdir veya oluşturulmalarında çok az engelle karşılaşırlar.
■ Kar amacı gütmeyen meşru kuruluşların terörle ilintili mevcudiyetlerle olan bağlantılardan kaçınmasına ve kamunun güvenini yeniden kazanmasına yardımcı olmak için, Mali Eylem Görev Gücü 2002 yılında kar amacı gütmeyen kuruluşların istismarı ile mücadele amacıyla en iyi uygulamalar hakkında kılavuzlar yayınlamıştır. Kılavuzlar, FATF’nin Terörün Finansmanı Hakkında Özel Tavsiyeleri ile ilgilidir. Uygulamalar yardım kuruluşunun yönetimden ve muhasebeden banka hesaplarına ve yurt dışı ofislerine kadar operasyonlarının tüm seviyelerini kapsamaktadır. FATF kar amacı gütmeyen organizasyonlara şu tavsiyelerde bulunmaktadır:
■ Tüm giderleri açıklayan tam program bütçelerine sahip olmaları ve bunları sunmaları
■ Bağımsız iç denetimler ve dış saha denetimleri yürütmeleri ve dış saha denetimlerinin fonların amacına uygun kullanılmasını sağlamaları.
FATF, yardım kuruluşlarının fonları depolamak ve transfer etmek için resmi banka hesaplarını kullanmasını ve böylece bunların bankanın düzenlemelerine ve kontrollerine tabi olmasını tavsiye etmektedir. Hesapların açıldığı bankalar böylece kar amacı gütmeyen kuruluşları diğer müşteriler gibi ele alabilir, Müşterini Tanı kurallarını uygulayabilir ve şüpheli faaliyetleri bildirebilir.
Örnek:
Sweet Charity
The extortion and bribery trial of Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini kicked off at the end of January and continues in the Federal courthouse in Newark. While the focus is, quite properly, on allegations of political corruption, the case raises a number of questions about the oversight of charitable organization, particularly religious foundations.
Beldini’s arrest is one of 44 made in July of a colorful assortment of rabbis, politicians and public officials in New Jersey. It is the first of a series of trials, although 10 of the arrested have already pleaded guilty.
The U.S. Attorney has been pounding home allegations that Beldini is one of almost two score of politicians that committed criminal breaches of public trust, but an important aspect of the case is that it also highlights how religious charities were used to launder money.
That’s where the rabbis, Brooklyn and New Jersey-based, come in. The alleged scheme involved over a dozen rabbis who accepted illicit profits under the guise of charitable donations and returned 85 to 90 percent of the money in cash or “clean” checks, according to the FBI.
Between June 2007 and July 2009, approximately $3 million in bribery money provided by federal investigators was laundered with the help of the Syrian and Hasidic Jewish rabbis. According to court documents, the rabbis charged did know the money was being used to bribe public officials: they believed it was from bank fraud and a counterfeit accessory operation!
Gmach Shefa Chaim, one of the charitable foundations involved, has already hired a lawyer David Liston, of Hughes Hubbard and Reed, to get back $508,000 seized by the FBI.
Liston told the Star-Ledger that the FBI has not suggested, let alone proved, that the officials who ran the charity knowingly laundered money. According to the newspaper, he wants the privacy of the group protected: the Gmach is an entity that values its privacy for religious reasons and provides help to the needy anonymously.
Privacy is all well and good, but the arrest, indictments, pleas and coming trials suggest that there is a need for religious charitable foundations to meet the same requirements that non-religious foundations and 501(c)3 (not-for profits) meet. This abuse of religious charities, if proven true, would not have happened so easily if they were required to file a form 990.
The banks used by the rabbis for the alleged money laundering include the nation’s largest bank, a super-regional and well-known local financial institution. And that means the trial is also a reminder to compliance professionals that due diligence and monitoring of suspicious activity is necessary even if the account holders are clergy.
Örnek:
Sweet Charity
The extortion and bribery trial of Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini kicked off at the end of January and continues in the Federal courthouse in Newark. While the focus is, quite properly, on allegations of political corruption, the case raises a number of questions about the oversight of charitable organization, particularly religious foundations.
Beldini’s arrest is one of 44 made in July of a colorful assortment of rabbis, politicians and public officials in New Jersey. It is the first of a series of trials, although 10 of the arrested have already pleaded guilty.
The U.S. Attorney has been pounding home allegations that Beldini is one of almost two score of politicians that committed criminal breaches of public trust, but an important aspect of the case is that it also highlights how religious charities were used to launder money.
That’s where the rabbis, Brooklyn and New Jersey-based, come in. The alleged scheme involved over a dozen rabbis who accepted illicit profits under the guise of charitable donations and returned 85 to 90 percent of the money in cash or “clean” checks, according to the FBI.
Between June 2007 and July 2009, approximately $3 million in bribery money provided by federal investigators was laundered with the help of the Syrian and Hasidic Jewish rabbis. According to court documents, the rabbis charged did know the money was being used to bribe public officials: they believed it was from bank fraud and a counterfeit accessory operation!
Gmach Shefa Chaim, one of the charitable foundations involved, has already hired a lawyer David Liston, of Hughes Hubbard and Reed, to get back $508,000 seized by the FBI.
Liston told the Star-Ledger that the FBI has not suggested, let alone proved, that the officials who ran the charity knowingly laundered money. According to the newspaper, he wants the privacy of the group protected: the Gmach is an entity that values its privacy for religious reasons and provides help to the needy anonymously.
Privacy is all well and good, but the arrest, indictments, pleas and coming trials suggest that there is a need for religious charitable foundations to meet the same requirements that non-religious foundations and 501(c)3 (not-for profits) meet. This abuse of religious charities, if proven true, would not have happened so easily if they were required to file a form 990.
The banks used by the rabbis for the alleged money laundering include the nation’s largest bank, a super-regional and well-known local financial institution. And that means the trial is also a reminder to compliance professionals that due diligence and monitoring of suspicious activity is necessary even if the account holders are clergy.
