By Justice Devindra Rampersad Stabroek News
(Trinidad Express) MILLIONS of dollars are suspected to have flowed through this country鈥檚 financial institutions over the last five years into the hands of international terrorist organisations and their associates.
Several sources familiar with the investigation told the Sunday Express that over the years it has become a growing concern.
Sources say that the amount of money that could have passed through this country鈥檚 banking system into suspicious hands may be over $100 million or more.
This issue has posed serious threats to the country鈥檚 economy and global reputation. International organisations such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have criticised Trinidad and Tobago for deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) regimes.
This country has attempted to address these concerns through legislation chang-es and increased collaboration with international financial intelligence agencies.
That is why at least 14 other individuals suspected of having links to various terrorist organisations around the world, including some with perceived ties to Trinidad and Tobago, have had bank accounts or assets (owned directly or indirectly) frozen in this country following an order made by Justice Devindra Rampersad on November 24, 2016.
However, on June 11 this year, Attorney General John Jeremie filed an application for partial revocation of Justice Rampersad鈥檚 order pursuant to section 22B(9) and 9A of the Anti-Terrorism Act Chapter 12:07 in relation to the orders that had been handed down in 2016.
In that June 11, 2025 court matter, which appeared in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette on June 14, 2025, Justice Devindra Rampersad gave the order in chambers without a hearing to have the sixth defendant in the 2016 matter鈥攊dentified as Hajjaj, with several aliases including Bin, Fahd, Al Ajmi鈥攔emoved from the list as an entity and that the defendant鈥檚 funds no longer be frozen.
However, 14 other names were listed that were made public, with these individuals all allegedly linked to terrorist organisations; they will continue to have their accounts and assets directly or indirectly frozen here, as ordered by Justice Rampersad, and as issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (FIUTT) to all financial institutions and businesses. These particular names, though part of an application made under the Anti-Terrorism Act since 2016, had not been made public before.
The latest action on June 11, 2025 by Justice Rampersad was taken a week before directives were given on June 17 by another judge, Karen Reid, to freeze any accounts or assets belonging to Ugandan Abubakar Swalleh.
Swalleh was identified as having connections to the terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda.
The Sunday Express contacted Attorney General Jeremie via phone on Thursday morning about the 14 people identified in the 2016 court matter who were also placed on a United Nations sanctions list for their alleged involvement in terrorist activities over the last few years.
The Sunday Express enquired about these individuals and some of their suspicious financial activities in this country as it related to the funding of terror-related activities.
鈥淥utside of the court filings on the terrorism-related matters I cannot talk about anything else further,鈥 Jeremie said.
The Sunday Express researched the names of those engaged in the court matter and their apparent links to terrorist organisations operating in various parts of the world. The United Nations report emphasised the global scope of these ties, implying that the individuals may be part of a larger network of extremist activity.
Several of the above individuals have also been blacklisted by the US Department of the Treasury, which has imposing similar monetary and property restrictions on them.
One of the named individuals in the local court matter is Algeria-born Said, alias Arif, with several other aliases. He was reportedly killed in an airstrike in Syria on May 25, 2015.
The UN sanctions report said he was a veteran member of the Chechen network and other terrorist groups. He was convicted of his role and membership in the Chechen network in France 2006.