ISIS Plays Stock & Currency Markets Too, And They Make Millions Of Dollars

During its peak, the Daesh (ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State) was the world’s wealthiest terror group. When it captured the city of Mosul, the group was flushed with 500 billion dinars (US$452 million; £320 million; RM1.86 billion) kept in the Iraqi city’s central bank. They were also reportedly made off with a large amount of gold bullion from the bank, which was left unguarded in the chaos.

After the Russian started carpet bombing the ISIS, a career as the group’s militant wasn’t that attractive and glory after all. Not to be seen ridiculously incompetent, the U.S.-led coalition plays catching up in bombing, forcing the super rich terror group into financial difficulties. ISIS soldiers who used to earn between US$400 – US$1,200 a month have taken 50% pay cut early this year.

Desperate to show that the United State was still the leader, and not the Russia, the U.S. military dropped two 2,000-pound bombs on a building in Mosul in Jan 2016, destroying a cache of cash worth “millions”. With tumbling crude oil prices and Russian’s blowing up of oil trucks, storage tanks and oil fields, the ISIS has turned to creativity in generating money.

During a hearing of a specially-convened Foreign Affairs sub-committee set up to examine Britain’s role in ISIS financing, it was revealed that ISIS is earning at least US$20 million (£14.2 million; RM82.6 million) a month channelling money looted from banks into stock and currency markets. Turns out, ISIS makes good returns speculating currency.

The money which was laundered into such financial instruments is then wired back via unsuspecting financial authorities in Iraq and Jordan. Along with extortion and oil smuggling, ISIS’ venture into stock market and currency trading has become a major source of income to the terror group. There is also another cash cow.

The notorious terror group, apparently, has been “siphoning off” money frompension payments that are still being made by the Iraqi government to civil servants living in the city of (captured) Mosul. All these monies are routed into Jordanian banks and brought back into Baghdad using “hawala” transfers – an unregulated system of money transfer method.

The details of the money laundering were revealed to the hearing by John Baron, the sub-committee’s chair, who demanded to know whether the British government – which has pledged to help cut off ISIS’ finance networks – was taking proper and sufficient action against it. The committee also heard that such “loophole” exists in the British financial system and is now plugging it.

Back in Dec 2015, the Central Bank of Iraq revealed 142 currency-exchange houses in Iraq that the US suspected of moving funds for Islamic State. However, the British government is unsure if the Jordanian government is actively doing something to stop the money laundering – via stock and currency markets – conducted by the ISIS. -financetwitter