Islamic Finance and Economics

IS Experiments with Cryptocurrency Options to Finance Extremist Operations

July 01, 2020

Blockchain industry experts report that Islamic State (“IS”) websites are encouraging followers to use Monero (XMR) to expand the options for cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, as an option to finance a range of Islamist operations.
Hezbollah Aims at Lebanon’s Central Bank in Bid to Control Financial and Banking Systems

May 13, 2020

Shiite Islamic extremist group Hezbollah is using its political clout in Lebanon’s government and society in a power grab over the country’s Central Bank, aiming for full institutional control over the country’s financial and banking systems and for advantages to Hezbollah deriving from the Central Bank's asset positions in the Mideast, Europe, and the United States.
COVID-19 Accelerates Partnerships Between UNDP and Islamic Finance

April 28, 2020

Existing collaborative efforts between the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and a diverse set of Islamic finance platforms and tools worldwide are being accelerated by the demands of response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hezbollah Ramps Up Islamist Financial and Procurement Footprint in Europe

April 28, 2020

Disruptions in the international oil market have pushed the Iran-supported, Lebanese Shiite extremist group Hezbollah to rapidly expand its existing financial and procurement operations in Europe.
Algeria Looks to Expand Islamic Finance to Compensate for Collapse in Oil Revenues

April 08, 2020

Algeria’s government is moving aggressively to expand Islamic finance options as a means of compensating for the collapse in global oil prices during the coronavirus pandemic, establishing a Sharia Board for issuing Fatwas against the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) member’s Islamic Finance Industry.
U.S. Treasury Dept. Cuts Through Islamist Linkages with Sanctions on UAE for Economic Support to Iranian Regime

March 24, 2020

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against five United Arab Emirates ("UAE") companies for supporting Iran's regime through massive purchases of petroleum and petrochemical products crucial, with the sanctions signaling Washington's move to disrupt economic and financial linkages between the UAE's Wahhabi Islamist theocracy and Iran's Shiite Islamist theocracy.
US Courts Sentence NY Woman to 13 Years for IS Bitcoin Scam

March 18, 2020

The US Department of Justice sentenced a New York woman to 13 years in prison for a bitcoin and cryptocurrency scam that defrauded credit cards and laundered money to supper IS cells abroad.
Southeast Asia Shows Trends of Strong Growth in Islamic Fintech Industry

March 16, 2020

The growth in Islamic financial technology ("fintech") startups and venture capital firms in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia is pointing to the impact of sharia finance and capital in the Southeast Asian corridor of economically developed, population dense, technologically advanced countries with a very sizable and growing Muslim population.
Some Financial Industry Experts Suggest a Match Between Islamic Finance & SDGs

March 05, 2020

Some financial industry experts are suggesting that the United Nations (UN) leadership should look to the $2-plus trillion-in-assets Islamic finance sector as an under-utilized source of capital for funding the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
U.S. Prosecution for Sanctions on Halkbank Reveals Turkey-Iran Islamist Regime Cooperation in Criminal Activities

February 05, 2020

The proposal by U.S. prosecutors in New York for massive daily fines against Halkbank, the second largest public lender in Turkey, for contempt of court in a case involving fraud and money laundering, reveals possible cooperation by Iran and Turkey in a criminal operation that violated U.S. sanctions legislation against Iran's Islamic theocratic regime.