The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) in Indonesia said Monday it has frozen more than $205,000 in funds allegedly belonging to individuals and organizations related to terrorist activities in the country.
PPATK head Muhammad Yusuf told reporters his agency cooperated with the Australian Transaction Report and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC) in probing accounts held by people or entities suspected of being connected to terrorist activities.
Twenty-six of the accounts were frozen.
Yusuf declined to reveal identities of the individuals or organizations, saying only that the assets were frozen in accordance with U.N. Security Council counterterror resolution No. 1267.
Non-governmental organizations also were among the organizations whose assets were frozen, including one charity that, according to Yusuf, led fundraising campaigns and engaged in racketeering.
“We found out that some of the funds in those frozen accounts were from ... fundraising by members of radical sites, robberies and illegal trafficking,” he said, adding that his agency is still monitoring financial activities of several NGOs whose assets remain fluid.
The inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FAFT) removed Indonesia from its global money laundering and terrorist financing list in June. Indonesia had been blacklisted by FAFT since February 2012 for failing to comply with its recommendations to adopt international counterterror conventions as stipulated by the United Nations.
This report was produced in collaboration with the VOA Indonesian service.
