WirePOLITICS: Fitzpatrick holds terrorism financing hearing

Tom Waring, the Wire

Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick last week held the first hearing of the newly reauthorized Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing.

The hearing focused on trade-based money laundering.

“In an increasingly connected world, trade-based money laundering allows terror and criminal syndicates to disguise their billions of dollars annually through the use of trade transactions in an attempt to legitimize their illicit origins. This cannot be allowed to continue,” Fitzpatrick said. “Building on what we know and have learned, this session of the task force will take a much closer look at this process as well as investigate several lesser-known methodologies mentioned in previous hearings, including terror funding streams from Latin America, developing our regional partners’ capabilities to combat terror financing and the funding of foreign-based terrorists.”

Building on previous findings, the task force will continue to hold hearings with U.S. terror financing officials and global counterterrorism experts to identify weaknesses in current policy, while working to ensure terror groups are unable to financially support their operations.