The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network today issued an advisory to assist financial institutions in detecting potentially illicit transactions related to Iran-backed terrorist organizations. The advisory highlights how terrorist organizations receive support from Iran and describes several typologies that terrorist organizations use to circumvent the international financial system to raise, move and spend funds.
The advisory also lists several red flags for determining suspicious behavior. They include customers who transact with sanctioned individuals and entities; the use of key terms associated with terrorist organizations in peer-to-peer transfers; transactions with money services businesses and virtual asset service providers operating in jurisdictions with lax customer identification and verification processes at high risk for terrorist activity; and transactions involving companies with opaque ownership structures, obscure names or business addresses in residential areas.
