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PUBLIC SECTOR

CASE STUDIES

Countering Terrorism Finance

 

Various strategic and tactical support to Western Governments - bilaterally and multilaterally through NATO, the UN and World Bank - on countering the threat of terrorism through understanding and interdicting related financial flows.

 

Beechwood's core team members and associates share unique expertise and experience in the field of how money flows in a crisis, and where formal institutions become vulnerable to abuse via money laundering and terrorism finance.

 

While it is widely known that financiers across the world are reluctant to share with an outsider much of their business practices under the basic principle that knowledge is power, the methods of running a business and moving cash or value in a conflict zone or crisis are by their very nature defined by secrecy, indeterminate legal status, and competitive or even divisive practices. This has been proven extensively in the academic literature of anthropology, criminology and economic sociology, and by Dr Edwina Thompson through her masterful approach to interviewing representatives of hundreds of hawala operations and trading networks in the Middle East and Horn of Africa over the past decade.

Dr Thompson has acted as a team leader on many government-funded assignments due to her deep experience in mitigating the difficulties of such an environment, and ability to compile information both rapidly and under extreme pressure. She is a trusted contributor to the Expert Laundering Evidence course for law enforcement officials in the UK. Other members of our network share an intimate understanding of how terrorists raise, move, store and use money, which is critical to informing today's evolving threat landscape.

Selected publications: 
 

"Draining the Ocean to Catch One Type of Fish: Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Global Counter-Terrorism Financing Regime"

Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol 7, No 4 (2013) · Aug 28, 2013

"Safer Corridors Rapid Assessment: Somalia & UK Banking" UK Government, Sep 2013

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