Friday April 2, 2021
MOGADISHU (HOL) - A Somali money transfer company, Amal Express, has demanded an ‘unconditional apology’ from a Geneva-based anti-terrorism financing watchdog following clearance of wrongdoing by the Central Bank of Somalia.
In a statement Thursday, the Garowe-based company said the Central Bank of accusations had exonerated it by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
“Following the release of this investigative report by the Central Bank of Somalia and based on the fact that Amal Express has been exonerated of any wrongdoing, we demand from GI-TOC an unconditional apology and for them to retract their report,” Amal said.
According to the statement, the Central Bank established no transactions by Abdirahman Mohamed Omar (aka Dhofaye to Abdirab Salim Al-Baydani (Al-Hayashi who is under UN sanctions for the whole of October 2019 as indicated in the Global Initiative report.
Although a similar entity, Abdirahman Mohamed Omar, exists in Amal records, the remittance company said the same individual did not send any money to the Yemeni-based listed terrorist.
“Crucially, this individual did not send any remittance to Yemen or Mr. Al-Baydani (Al-Hayashi) at any time over the past five years,” the statement read in part.
According to the Central Bank report, Amal added that GI’s receipts did not match those obtained internally from the remittance company.
“This indicates that the Amal receipt published in the GI-TOC report may not be genuine.”
Global Initiative said in a report last year Somali money transfer companies had moved more than $3.7 million in cash between suspected weapons traffickers in recent years.
The funds, GI said, were also received by Abdirab Salim Al-Baydani (Al-Hayashi) under US and UN sanctions for terror links.