Treasury's War Read online

  and Mubahith, 76, 77

  and mujahideen financing, 68, 84–85

  and 9/11, 67

  and Riggs Banks, 149

  and Syria, 355

  and terrorist financing, 67–68, 72, 80–91

  Saudi American Bank (Samba), 87–88

  Saudi Committee for the Relief of the Palestinian People, 86–87

  Saudi Committee for the Support of the Intifida Al Quds

  See Saudi Committee for the Relief of the Palestinian People

  Schick, Alan, 181–182

  Schneider, Scott, 177–178, 180–181

  Schrank, Leonard “Lenny”

  and SWIFT, 52–54, 57, 58, 274, 277, 283

  Scobey, Margaret, 73, 157, 183

  Scolinos, Tasia, 18, 127

  Scomi Precision Engineering (SCOPE), 212

  Second Life, 396

  See also Linden dollars

  Secret Service, 208, 233, 250

  and Counter Assault Team (CAT), 16

  and counterfeiting, 4, 129, 221–224, 229, 234

  and Department of Homeland Security, 128, 130–132

  investigation of 9/11 hijackers, 34

  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 412

  Senate Banking Committee, 204

  Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 321, 335

  Senate Homeland Security Committee, 410

  Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, 205

  Seng Heng Bank, 240

  Seoul (South Korea), 323

  Shamoon virus, 410

  Sharjah Cooperative Society, 367

  Sharjah Islamic Bank, 367

  Sharma, Amit

  and hawaladars, 97–101, 102

  and North Korea, 260

  Shedd, David, 227–228, 231, 245

  Sheikh Mohammed, Khalid

  bank accounts of, 20

  Shelby, Richard, 204–206

  Shell oil, 337

  Sierra Leone, 120, 121

  signals intelligence (SIGINT), 48

  Simon, Steve, 178

  Simpson, Glenn, 274

  Singapore, 63, 64

  and Iran, 333, 334

  and North Korea, 220, 241

  Siniora, Fouad, 192

  Sloan, Jim, 134

  smart financial power, 321

  Smith, Chris, 206

  Smoking Dragon investigation, 235

  Snow, John, 143, 150

  and Crown Prince Abdullah, 78

  and expansion of Treasury, 205–207, 215–216

  and Iran, 295

  and Iraq, 170

  and North Korea, 232, 241–242

  and Prince Bandar, 84, 86

  and SWIFT, 271, 273, 275

  Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)

  and effectiveness of data, 55–57, 63–65

  and expanded Treasury, 201, 203

  history and purpose of, 49–50

  and Iran, 283–284, 338–339, 374

  and Ismuddin, Riduan, 64

  public knowledge of, 269–285, 269–285

  and “scrutineers,” 59

  and Treasury subpoenas, 54–55

  US access to, 50–54, 56, 57–58, 282

  Sodbiznesbank, 161

  Somalia, 37, 76, 79, 430–431

  Al Qaeda in, 363–364

  and hawalas, 94

  Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of, 431

  See also Al Barakaat network, Al Shabaab

  Sony Playstation, 406

  Sopranos, The, 235, 236

  and Soprano State, 239

  South Africa, 6, 212, 400

  South Korea, 220, 236, 389, 400, 404

  and Iran, 288, 334, 336

  and North Korea, 252, 324, 373

  and ROKS Cheonan, 322

  Soviet Union, 17, 119

  Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), 400

  Specially Designated Nationals, 25

  Spiegel Online, 281

  Stafford, Brian, 134

  Standard & Poor, 384, 403

  Standard Chartered bank, 332, 348–349, 370, 371

  Starbucks, 191

  Star Wars, 368

  State Department, 33, 46, 88, 107, 142, 150, 178, 215

  and Iran, 295, 307, 333, 337

  and Iraq, 172

  and Khan, AQ, 213

  See also North Korea and State Department

  state-owned enterprises (SOEs), 386

  Steinberg, Jim, 323

  Straits of Hormuz, 289

  Stuxnet virus, 407–409

  Stys, Mark, 411

  Success Foundation, 106

  Sudan, 81, 149, 320, 407

  and bin Laden, 42, 60

  Suez Canal, 5

  Sun Trust Bank, 20

  Sunni Wahhabi Islam, 68–69, 424

  supernote. See North Korea counterfeiting

  Suspicious Activity Reports, 20

  Sveriges Riksbank, 49

  Swartz, Bruce, 235

  Sweden, 38, 112–113

  SWIFT. See Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

  Swiss Federal Council, 212–213

  Swiss National Bank, 49

  Switzerland, 40, 89, 90, 425

  and asset recovery, 199

  and Iraq, 174, 181, 187, 188, 195

  and WMD, 212

  and White Money Initiative, 199

  Syria, 86, 164, 170, 200, 284, 365–366, 375

  and cash couriers, 106

  and Hezbollah, 358

  and Iraq, 171, 181, 183–185, 195

  and North Korea, 224

  in Lebanon, 190, 193, 409

  and money laundering, 156–158

  nuclear program of, 62, 211, 212–214

  and Section 311, 353

  Syrian Accountability Act, 156–157

  Syrian International Islamic Bank (SIIB), 354–355

  Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, 156–157

  Szubin, Adam, 341, 346–348

  Taepo Dong 2 missile, 253

  Tahir, B.S.A., 212

  Taipei (Taiwan), 393

  Taiwan

  and China, 163, 387, 393, 401

  and North Korea, 222

  Tajikistan, 162

  takfir (apostates), 69

  Taliban, 79

  and hawalas, 94

  and heroin and opium trade, 23, 197, 368, 369

  and Islamic charities, 71

  and organized crime, 120

  and UN, 33

  Tamil Tigers, 23

  Tanchong Commercial Bank, 225

  Taylor, Charles, 120–121

  Taylor, John, 74

  and Taylor rule, 32

  Tehran (Iran), 287, 288, 294, 322, 324, 338, 340, 351, 375

  Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, 64, 203, 285

  Terrorist Finance Tracking System (TFTS), 282

  terrorist financing, 210–211

  and comingling of funds, 22

  and deep-pocket donors, 19–20, 78, 80–82, 109

  designations of, 27–28, 29, 36, 38–41, 70–73, 108–114

  and funder intent, 22

  as “reverse money laundering,” 21

  See also cash couriers, charities (Islamic), Golden Chain list, organized crime

  Terrorist Financing Operations Section (TFOS)

  origin of, 34, 60

  Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP), 269

  Thailand, 63, 122–123

  Tinner, Friedrich, 212–213

  Tinner, Marco, 212–213

  Tinner, Urs, 212–213

  threat finance cells (TFCs), 196–197

  Tokyo

  and Iran, 289

  and North Korea, 323

  Toscas, George, 18

  Total oil, 335

  Townsend, Frances M. Fragos, 83–84

  Trafigura, 337

  Transavia Travel, 120

  Transitional Federal Government (Somalia), 364

  transnational organized crime (TOC) strategy, 381

  Transparency International,
199

  Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture (TEOAF), 18, 133

  expansion of, 202

  Treasury Terrorist Financing Tracking Program (“Turtle”), 54, 64, 285

  See also SWIFT

  Tri-Border Area of South America (TBA), 117–119

  Tripoli (Libya), 106, 344

  Tunisia, 164

  Turkey, 81, 299, 369

  and Iran, 288, 348

  and Iraq, 171

  and Syria, 355

  and US financial crisis (2008), 384

  Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, 158

  Twitter, 430

  UBS

  and Iran, 302, 371

  penalty against, 148

  and SWIFT, 57

  Ukraine, 387

  and Bad Bank Initiative, 153

  Unha-2 missile, 320

  United Against a Nuclear Iran, 361

  United Arab Emirates, 90, 164

  and cash couriers, 105

  and hawalas, 95, 96

  and Iran, 288, 307

  and Libya, 354

  and organized crime, 115, 121

  and Sharjah, 121

  and Syria, 355

  United Nations, 32, 87, 192, 195

  and Iran, 296–297, 303, 325–326, 330–331, 341–342

  and 1518 Committee, 186, 187

  and North Korea, 372

  and Oil for Food Program (OFF), 6, 158, 172–173, 199

  and organized crime, 376

  sanctions of, 81, 121, 215

  Security Council of, 38, 171, 215, 325, 341

  Security Council Resolution 1267, 33, 38, 234

  Security Council Resolution 1373, 33

  Security Council Resolution 1483, 175, 178, 188–189, 192

  Security Council Resolution 1540, 215

  Security Council Resolution 1696, 306

  Security Council Resolution 1737, 306

  Security Council Resolution 1803, 306

  Security Council Resolution 1874, 322

  Security Council Resolution 1929, 331

  and Somalia, 364

  and Syria, 355

  United Wa State Army, 155

  USA PATRIOT Act (2001), 137, 147

  and Section 311, 151–158, 164, 167, 290, 332, 353, 360

  and Title III, 30, 47, 151

  US Bancorp, 410

  US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 123, 312

  and US Attorney, 369

  US Export-Import Bank, 392

  US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 313

  US Global Leadership Coalition Conference, 388

  USS Cole, 18

  U-turn financial transaction, 303, 308

  Vardaman, John, 178

  Ven digital currency, 396

  Venezuela, 304, 371, 374

  and Iran, 309–310, 375

  oil in, 403–405

  and Taliban, 369

  Vienna (Austria)

  and Iran, 296, 350

  and North Korea, 220, 233

  Vienna Convention for Consular Affairs, 149

  Vietnam, 299, 389

  Vitol, 337

  Vladivostok, 264

  Wachovia, 263

  Wall Street Journal, 18, 274, 310

  Wallerstein, Ryan, 165–167

  Wallwork, Anne, 140, 158

  Warren, Mary Lee, 142

  Washington, D.C. (US), 31, 107, 148, 167, 170, 183, 326, 338

  Washington Post, The, 275

  Wayne, Tony, 33, 178

  weapons of mass destruction (WMD), 29, 111, 213–215

  in Iraq, 171, 173

  proliferation of, 210–211

  Wells Fargo, 410

  Werner, Bob, 214

  Western Union, 30, 96

  in Kabul, 98

  White House Situation Room, 41, 58, 232, 267, 299, 329, 345

  WikiLeaks, 430

  Wilkinson, James R., 263, 267, 291

  Williams & Connolly, 26

  Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 254

  Wolfe, George, 26

  and Iraq, 174, 178

  and SWIFT, 55

  World Bank, 32, 47, 137, 373, 392

  Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative of, 199

  World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2008 report, 411

  World War I

  and League of Nations, 4

  World War II, 399

  and “The Control,” 23–24

  and counterfeiting, 224

  and economic sanctions, 4–5

  Wynn, Steve, 226

  Yakuza, 376, 381

  YBM Magnex, 380

  Yemen, 18, 164

  and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, 78, 398

  and cash couriers, 106

  and North Korea, 222

  Yeonpyeong Island, 322

  Yugoslavia, 148

  zakhat (charitable giving), 70, 109

  “Zarate-Zubkov” reports, 162

  Zelikow, Philip, 291

  Zhou Xiaochuan, 241–242

  Zhu Guangyao, 389

  Zubkov, Viktor, 160–163

  Zurich (Switzerland), 106

  STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images

  President George W. Bush (L) walks to the Rose Garden with Secretary of State Colin Powell (C) and Secretary of Treasury Paul O’Neill (R), September 24, 2001. Bush had just signed Executive Order 13224, which marked the start of the campaign against terrorist financing. He declared, “Today, we have launched a strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network. . . . We will starve the terrorists of funding.”

  SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

  A money changer and his customer exchange dollars for Afghanis at the money exchange market in Kabul, Afghanistan, October 8, 2003. The Afghan economy has long relied on cash, money exchangers, and the use of the traditional hawala money transfer system, all of which came under intense scrutiny after 9/11.

  Photo courtesy of the author

  The author (dressed for business, not combat), in front of a C-17 cargo plane on a Treasury delegation trip through Afghanistan and South Asia. Searching for ways to staunch the flow of terrorist and illicit funds, Treasury officials took numerous trips soon after 9/11 to war zones, crisis areas, and banking centers.

  Photo courtesy of the US Treasury/Chris E. Turner

  David Aufhauser, Treasury’s General Counsel, speaks at a press conference at the Treasury Department regarding terrorist financing efforts and designations, soon after 9/11. Aufhauser played a key role coordinating counter-terrorist financing actions and policy. Behind him is Richard Newcomb, the longstanding Director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a small and sometimes secretive office that manages the US government’s sanctions programs.

  Photo courtesy of the US Treasury/Chris E. Turner

  Secretary of the Treasury John Snow speaks at a Treasury press conference announcing the joint US–Saudi “designation” of four branches of the Saudi-based Al Haramain organization for funding al Qaeda. Such designations targeted individuals, companies, and associated properties with the intent of shutting them out of the US financial system, thus making it nearly impossible for them to engage in legitimate financial activity. This designation was intended to demonstrate tangible US–Saudi cooperation and ultimately resulted in the closing of Al Haramain, then the largest Saudi charity. From left to right, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Tony Wayne, Ambassador-at-large for Counterterrorism Cofer Black, Secretary Snow, the author, and Adel al Jubeir, then Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Saudi Crown Prince (later King) Abdullah and later Saudi Ambassador to the United States.

  Photo courtesy of the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC

  Frances Fragos Townsend, President Bush’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser, meeting with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, on June 21, 2006, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Townsend became the principal interlocutor with the Saudi government on counterterrorism.

  Photo courtesy of IRS-CID Agent Scott
Schneider

  IRS-Criminal Investigative Division agent Scott Schneider and Treasury analyst Pat Conlon at an airfield in Baghdad, Iraq, May 2003. They were the first Treasury agents deployed to Iraq to hunt for Saddam’s assets and set up the logistics for linking Treasury’s efforts with the US military. Their uniforms are labeled “Treasury.”

  Photo from IRS-CID agent Scott Schneider

  Treasury analyst Conlon in Baghdad amidst the piles of financial records collected from the Iraqi Central Bank in the spring of 2003, soon after the American-led invasion. These financial documents, along with local interviews and an international effort, formed the basis for locating and recovering more than $3 billion of Saddam Hussein’s assets.

  Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, gifted by Herbert A. French from the National Photo Company Collection

  The Riggs Bank, circa 1921, on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, located across from the US Treasury. Riggs was a longstanding and storied banking institution servicing high-value clients and many foreign embassies in the city. It had once billed itself as “the most important bank in the most important city in the world.” After 9/11, Riggs was investigated for lacking anti-money-laundering controls and failing to apply necessary due diligence to high-risk accounts and customers. Riggs closed in 2005, sold its assets to PNC Financial Services, leaving numerous embassies temporarily without a banker. The building became a PNC Bank.

  Photo courtesy of the US Treasury/Chris E. Taylor

  The author (L) and Stuart Levey at their confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on July 15, 2004. Both assumed leadership roles in the new Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department, established in 2004. The new office—referred to as “TFI”—would become the center of the Treasury and US government’s financial warfare efforts.

  TEH ENG KOON/AFP/Getty Images

  US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Treasury Daniel Glaser (L) and US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill (R) hold a press conference at a hotel in Beijing, March 19, 2007. By deploying Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Treasury stunned North Korea in an action against Banco Delta Asia in Macau, which resulted in Pyongyang’s isolation from the banking system. US officials then attempted to unwind the financial pressure, with the goal of inducing North Korea back to the six-party talks.

  Reprinted with permission of the cartoonist Gary Varvel and Creators Syndicate

  Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri reading the 2006 New York Times article about the US Treasury’s Terrorist Financing Tracking Program. The story revealed a secret program the Treasury department had established soon after 9/11 to work with SWIFT, the international bank messaging network based in Belgium, to track and disrupt suspected terrorist financing networks. The story caused a firestorm of controversy.