Insight Monitor Dispatches: extremist financing through cryptocurrencies and a terrorist listing
Hello Insight Monitor subscribers! We have a few updates for you this week that you might find interesting on extremist financing under a Trump presidency, the listing by Canada of the Houthis as a terrorist entity, and Canada’s upcoming FATF evaluation, along with additional information on our Financial Intelligence Fundamentals & Sources courses. Have a read, share it with a friend, and let us know what you think in the comments or in the chat.
Last week, I spoke to Ben Makuch for the Guardian about what Trump’s promise to loosen crypto regulations means for extremist groups. I told Ben that “any loosening of regulations on crypto (or, frankly, the appearance of loosening) is likely to further increase extremists’ use of crypto” and that “while the integration of crypto into the traditional financial system is not a nefarious goal, steps to do so, without proper regulation and compliance with international counter-terrorist financing standards, will make it easier for terrorists to raise and move funds for their purposes.”
Over the last few years, we’ve seen extremist groups (and listed terrorist groups / entities) increasingly use cryptocurrency, from extremist websites (we wrote an article about one in particular that you can read here) to Atomwaffen Division and the Russian Imperial Movement. In other cases, however, extremists have eschewed the use of cryptocurrency, saying that it is “fundamentally worthless” and not useful for attack financing. All told, extremists have an interest in cryptocurrency, but they don’t always adopt it, including because of concerns about its traceability. At this point, I’d say that terrorist groups like the Islamic State, Hamas, and Hizballah are more likely to use cryptocurrency than ideologically motivated extremists.
In other big terrorist financing/sanctions news, Canada decided to list the Houthis (aka Ansarallah) as a terrorist entity. I’ve advocated for this for a while now, given the threat they pose to international security. Based on our analysis, I doubt that Canada has significant exposure to Houthis financing, but as with any sanction, designation, or listing, the more allies that coordinate, the more effective these measures are. Terrorists and non state actors have a long history of engaging in jurisdictional arbitrage to take advantage of permissive jurisdictions. This listing will help prevent Canada from being used for Houthis finance.
For those interested in learning more about how to use and integrate financial intelligence into investigations, research, and analysis, we have two courses available for you. Our Financial Intelligence Fundamentals course is a great place to start, where you will learn what FININT is, how it’s used, and how it can be developed as a source. When you’re ready to take things to the next level, our Financial Intelligence Sources course sets you up for success by providing a step-by-step guide to finding and exploiting financial intelligence. And coming this winter, we’ll launch our Financial Intelligence Analysis course to help you better analyze, contextualize, and report the findings of financial intelligence. These three courses will be our Financial Intelligence Investigations course. While that full suite of courses won’t be available for a while, you can start your learning journey now. And don’t worry — current students are always offered a discount on future courses, so you don’t have to wait until the full bundle is ready to get started.
Canada is also gearing up for its review by the Financial Action Task Force. I spoke to Alexandra Posadzki, the Globe and Mail’s new financial and cybercrime reporter, about what it could mean for Canada. While I think that Canada has a relatively strong counter-illicit financing regime, I do think that we will struggle to demonstrate significant progress since 2021 (our last follow-up report), and even 2016. I point to lagging issues such as beneficial ownership (the provinces aren’t fully on board with this yet), our lack of foreign agent registry (legislation has passed but it hasn’t been implemented), as well as the mysterious financial crimes agency that was promised years ago, but that has yet to see the light of day. I also noted that “Canada’s prosecutions for crimes such as sanctions evasion, terrorist financing and money laundering are incredibly low, in some cases almost non-existent.” While I doubt that Canada will be grey-listed, I assess the chance as “non-zero”, and that geopolitical tensiosn could factor into this process. Ten years ago, I would have told you that this is an apolitical process. This year, under a Trump presidency and with increased foreign interference by India, China, and other countries, I think that calculus is different. For instance, “if Canada were to be evaluated by assessors from the United States, they may factor in comments from president-elect Donald Trump, who has been pressuring Canada to crack down on the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants across the U.S. border.” Have a read of the full article here.
Finally, I’m pleased (and slightly alarmed) to report that Insight Threat Intelligence (the parent company of this newsletter, Insight Monitor) is almost at full capacity for 2025! We’ve got a ton of exciting projects lined up, from advisory services to deep research projects, a little bit of travel, and a few speaking engagements. So, if you’re thinking of reaching out to talk about engaging us for training, research, education, speaking, or advice, do so sooner rather than later because our dance card is almost full! My executive assistant Victoria is scheduling calls for the new year (victoria@insightthreatintel.com).
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