The amount of financial transactions suspected of being linked to terrorist activity has tripled in T&T over 12 months.
So said the director of the Financial Intelligence Unit of T&T (FIUTT) Susan Francois.
Her comments were contained in the FIUTT’s 2014/15 report, which was laid in the Senate yesterday by Minister of Finance Colm Imbert. It covered the period October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015.
Francois said there were five financial transaction reports that were suspected to be linked to terrorist activity in the year 2013/14 but that number increased significantly within the next 12 months to 16.
Francois said while there were 16 reports “the number of suspects identified in these reports, suspected terrorists and their financiers, exceeded that amount.”
“The FIUTT has received and analysed information from other local and international sources on over 100 persons who are suspected of participating in terrorist activities,” Francois added.
She said based on reports linked to suspected terrorist activity, the FIUTT contributed to the Egmont Group ISIL project on Western Hemispheric Regional Financial Intelligence Profile on ISIL foreign terrorist fighters.
She said once disclosure was authorised the FIUTT “will share the regional profiles and underacted global assessment with domestic government partners.”
She said terrorists groups were “bent on destabilising communities and causing loss of life; activities which are likely to have a global impact around the world, including the Caribbean.”
She said the FIUTT would support a re-examination of its legal structure “to ensure that this structure not only satisfies international requirements of autonomy and independence but also best serves the needs of the country at this time.
Francois said it was commonly acknowledged that cash-intensive environments which foster a lack of transparency in transactions also facilitates criminal activities. She added: “The FIUTT will also recommend that the authorities give serious consideration to instituting limits to the use of cash for the purchase of goods and services, as well as in the collection of revenue at Government offices.”