KUALA LUMPUR: Australian police are investigating a remittance company linked to the family of a convicted terrorist over “missing funds” worth A$9 million (RM26.1 million) that may have been used to finance Australians fighting along with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis), with some of it sent to individuals in Malaysia.

The Australian reported yesterday that authorities were concerned that the company Bisotel Rieh Global Money Transfer, which specialises in remittances to the Middle East, may have sent funds to Mohamed Elomar, a companion of convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf in Syria. Both are Isis fighters. The two men, who reportedly left Australia late last year, had travelled to Syria together via a transit in Malaysia.

The authorities are also probing the company’s fund transfers to individuals in Malaysia. Employees had admitted that the company “actively smuggles” money from Turkey into Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre agency (Austrac) has suspended Bisotel Rieh, which operates in Lakemba, western Sydney, after the company failed to declare the AS$9 million transferred out of the country between January and August.

Austrac chief executive officer John Schmidt was quoted by The Australian as saying: “The figures don’t appear to match. It’s a fairly big difference in a short space of time. We are satisfied that the continued registration ... may involve a significant financing of terrorism risk,” he told the daily.

Austrac released documents showing that the agency’s officers had visited the business in May and established that Bisotel Rieh had “arranged for bulk cash to be smuggled from Turkey into Lebanon”, apparently because it failed to access bank accounts in Lebanon. The finding led to a larger probe into the company, which was subsequently discovered to have transferred about A$38,000 in three transactions to an unnamed individual in Malaysia.

At the same time, the company also made another transfer to Malaysia. This to Austrac was “seemingly coincidentally”, The Australian reported. — The Malaysian Insider


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 19, 2014.