The United States and Turkey identified four individuals and two entities as part of a financial facilitation network that helps to finance the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS terrorist group. They have been instrumental in the group’s recruitment as well as financial transfers to and from Iraq and Syria.
On January 5, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, designated the founder of the network, Abd Al Hamid Salim Ibrahim Ismail Brukan al-Khatuni; his sons Muhammad Abd Al Hamid and Umar Abd Al Hamid; and Lu’ay Jasim Hammadi al-Juburi, pursuant to Executive Order 13224, for providing financial support to the terrorist group. At the same time, Turkish authorities froze their assets.
Abd Al Hamid Salim Ibrahim Ismail Brukan al-Khatuni is an Iraqi national illegally living in Turkey. Over the past several years, he has served as the head of foreign financing in ISIS’s so-called Wilayat al-Jazirah in Iraq; managed the group’s financial facilitation network in Turkey; and played a significant role in transferring funds through his network in support of ISIS and ISIS senior leaders.
Muhammad Abd Al Hamid Salim Brukan al-Khatuni and Umar Abd Al Hamid Salim Brukan al-Khatuni are Brukan al-Khatuni’s sons. They are members of ISIS’s financial facilitation network. In June 2021, they coordinated with an ISIS finance official to facilitate the transfer of over 500,000 dollars.
Lu’ay Jasim Hammadi al-Juburi is an ISIS financial facilitator who used Sham Express, a Turkey-based company founded in 2020 by Brukan al-Khatuni, to transfer money on behalf of ISIS between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.
Since these individuals facilitated money transfers to ISIS through their Turkey-based financial entities, Wadi Alrrafidayn for Foodstuffs and Sham Express, both of these entities were also designated. Wadi Alrrafidayn is designated for being controlled by Brukan al-Khatuni. Sham Express, which exists to illegally transfer money between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq on behalf of ISIS financial facilitators, is being designated for having materially assisted ISIS.
The January 5th action “reaffirms Treasury’s commitment to degrade ISIS’s ability to operate globally,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “These designations and accompanying asset freezes are a result of close coordination and collaboration with our Turkish partners to target ISIS activity in the region.”
