View original document

The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Treasury Designates Senior ISIS-Somalia Financier
July 27, 2023

WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control
(OFAC) imposed sanctions on Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf, the head of the finance office of the
Somalia-based affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), designating him as a Specially
Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf has played a key role in the delivery
of foreign fighters, supplies, and ammunition on behalf of ISIS-Somalia, which serves as a hub for
disbursing funds and guidance to ISIS branches and networks across the continent. ISIS-Somalia
generates much of its revenue through extortion, specifically targeting local communities for
money and recruits, often under the threat of violence.
“Terrorist groups, and ISIS-Somalia specifically, seek to exploit institutional vulnerabilities to
finance their activities. The sanctions imposed today demonstrate the U.S. commitment to
leveraging our authorities in support to our partners, including the Federal Government of
Somalia, in their efforts to counter terrorist financing and strengthen national and regional
stability and security,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
Brian E. Nelson after meeting with government officials and the Somali private sector in
Mogadishu.
Today’s action builds on OFAC’s previous designations in November 2022 of a transnational ISISSomalia weapons trafficking network and senior members of the terrorist group. It also follows
U.S. military action in January of this year that targeted and killed Somalia-based ISIS leader
Suhayl Salim Abd El-Rahman, more commonly known as Bilal al-Sudani.

ISIS FINANCING IN SOMALIA
ISIS-Somalia has continued to facilitate financial transfers, including through mobile money, to
support ISIS’s destabilizing activities across Africa. ISIS-Somalia has received most of its revenue —
amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars per month — from the extortion of financial
institutions, mobile money service providers, and other local businesses, most of which were
located in the Port of Bosaso in Bari region, Somalia. ISIS has moved these funds via cash transfers,
and money laundering through businesses, hawalas, banks, and mobile money transfers within
Somalia. In the first half of 2022, ISIS-Somalia generated nearly $2 million by collecting extortion

payments from local businesses, related imports, livestock, and agriculture. In 2021, ISIS-Somalia
generated an estimated $2.5 million in revenue. ISIS-Somalia is one of the most significant ISIS
affiliates in Africa, generating revenue for ISIS to disburse to branches and networks across the
continent.
Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf has served as the head of ISIS-Somalia’s finance office since at least late
2019. Yusuf, a key senior member of ISIS-Somalia, meets with and reports to other ISIS leaders in
Somalia, including ISIS al-Karrar office emir Abdiqadir Mumin and ISIS-Somalia emir Abdirahman
Fahiye Isse Mohamud, whom the Department of State and OFAC designated in 2016 and 2022,
respectively. Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf has also directed the delivery of foreign fighters, supplies,
and ammunition on behalf of ISIS. Yusuf was partially responsible for managing the revenue
generated by ISIS-Somalia and has facilitated transfers for ISIS.
Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having
acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, ISIS-Somalia.

SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated individual
described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are
blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or
indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are
also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s
regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United
States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked
persons.
In addition, financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities
with the sanctioned entities and individuals may expose themselves to sanctions or be subject to
an enforcement action. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of
funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated person, or the receipt of any
contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
Furthermore, engaging in certain transactions with a number of the individuals and entities
designated today entails risk of secondary sanctions pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended.
Pursuant to this authority, OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or
maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account of a

foreign financial institution that knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant transaction on
behalf of a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC’s ability to designate and
add persons to the SDN List, but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List
consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a
positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an
OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to OFAC’s Frequently Asked Question 897 here. For
detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list,
please click here.
Click here for more information on the individual designated today.
###