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Business shut over ‘terror links’

ABC News

ABC News

A Sydney-based money transfer business facing deregistration because of suspected terrorism links is owned by the sister and brother-in-law of known terrorist Khaled Sharrouf.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) issued the suspension of Bisotel Rieh Pty Ltd’s licence today and was seeking to cancel the firm’s registration permanently.

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It said the company did not abide by laws understating a $21 million transfer and not identifying who was receiving it.

It said the company has admitted smuggling large sums of cash from Turkey into Lebanon, while also failing to provide details of who took delivery of money sent to Lebanon and Malaysia.

The action against Bisotel Rieh is authorised under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act.

Sharrouf is fighting with Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, and has posted images online of his seven-year-old son holding a severed head.

Acting AUSTRAC CEO John Schmidt said there were suspicions that continued registration could involve the financing of terrorism, people smuggling or money laundering.

“We’re not saying that it was going to terrorism – we’re a regulator, we are required to make sure that they have in place appropriate systems so that they can deal with the risk of sending funds to those areas,” he said.

“And there just isn’t the adequacy with their records.”

He said the remittance sector has been identified globally as being vulnerable to misuse for money laundering and terrorism financing purposes.

Bisotel Rieh’s head office is in Lakemba in Sydney’s south-west, while it also has branches in the nearby suburb of Liverpool and in the Lebanese city of Tripoli.

AUSTRAC is Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulator and specialist financial intelligence unit.

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