Charities get £1m to tackle money laundering

Published on Saturday 23 February 2008 18:48

THE Charity Commission is being given £1m to help its members identify and combat terror groups trying to launder money through their accounts.

It is the latest move in an ongoing fight to tackle the funding of illegal groups which last year saw more than 3bn of "dirty money" transferred out of the UK.

Dozens of charities in England and Wales have already been probed for alleged terror links and in several cases the authorities' inquiries have brought them up to Scotland.

Terror groups around the world are known to have hijacked legitimate charitable organisations and siphoned off millions of pounds to fund their illegal activities.

This can be done in a number of ways but the most popular include putting their own people on to the boards of the charities or simply setting up a charity as a "front" for a genuine cause but sending any monies raised to bolster unlawful activities.

Last year, an HM Treasury report laid out the problems facing charities and also how the government hoped to tackle the issue.

It noted: "In order to ensure that the Charity Commission has the tools it needs to respond to the wider terrorist threat impacting on all regulated sectors, extra resources will be made available to increase the commission's capacity in this area. This will include an additional 1m for the year 2007/08."

In Scotland, the Office of Scottish Charity Regulators – the Scottish equivalent of the Charity Commission – said it too had been warned of the threat posed.