The US Treasury has designated Kenya-based Halima Adan Ali for assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to, or in support of I***********e of I************a ( I**S).
It says Halima played an integral role in an I**S financial facilitation network spanning Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Eastern Africa. She worked with Treasury-designated Waleed Ahmaed Zein to conduct transactions at the behest of Waleed’s Syria-based family member in support of I**S fighters. Between 2017 and early 2018, Halima received large sums of money from around the world, mostly through hawala systems, that she would forward to I**S fighters in Syria, Libya, and central Africa. She was also used as a conduit to pass instructions, money, and accounts to Waleed. Their intricate network moved over $150,000 on behalf of I**S.
Halima, who before becoming associated with I**S served as an e*******t recruiter and facilitator for al-S*****b, planned to travel from East Africa to Syria and other I**S supported areas in August 2014, but was left behind when she was a******d for activities in support of al-S*****b. Waleed’s Syria-based family member worked through proxy channels to provide funds to secure Halima’s release from p****n on bond, after which she began to work closely with him in support of I**S. Halima was a******d again by Kenyan security services in July 2018.
Also designated are six members of the Rawi Network, who were described as key money men for the I***********e. The US m******y and its allies have targeted Rawi personnel in I************a. And intelligence from these raids helped inform Treasury’s latest designations.
The US k****d Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, a Syrian who helped lead the network and served as an I***********e “finance emir,” in a June 2017 a*******e in Abu Kamal, Syria. The US and Iraqi governments had begun clamping down on his businesses months earlier. Fawaz rose to prominence within the I***********e after he swore allegiance (or bayat) to Abu Bakr a*********i in 2014. Fawaz’s loyalty gave the self-declared caliphate access to his extensive web of businesses, which provided crucial money laundering and exchange services.
On September 7 last year, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also took action targeting Zein, a t*******t in East Africa who established an intricate worldwide financial network to facilitate funds transfers for the I**S. Zein has been named a Specially Designated Global T*******t (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224 for assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of, I**S.
