ICC Note: Many have wondered how ISIS has been able to generate such incredible wealth for their genocidal efforts on a global level.  Recent studies and a new report issued to the UK Parliamentary committee on finance discussed several possibilities how there wealth first began.  ISIS operations under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi began in Iraq–where Baghdadi was released from prison when the US turned the POW camp over to the Iraqi Government.  ISIS first major victory was the takeover of Mosul, where they looted major city banks.  Among these were stashes of US currency (dollars) which are generally maintained as the strongest global currency.  Early ISIS activities must have been perpetuated by an economist or someone versed in international stock exchange practices, because ISIS factions funneled these stolen Dollars into legitimate Middle Eastern stock markets and then unsuspecting Jordanian and other governmental markets wired them back after the ISIS elements bet on stock appreciation (which is always a safe bet with US Dollars).  Since then, the illegitimate funneling activity met by unsuspecting Middle Eastern States has generated millions of dollars into the pockets of the Islamic State causing Christians in the Middle East incredible distress under the rule of such an increasingly wealthy and powerful “regime.”

3/3/2016 Middle East (Sydney Morning Herald) – Isil is making millions of dollars for its war chest by playing foreign currency markets under the noses of bank chiefs, it was revealed on Wednesday.

The terror group is earning up to $US20 million ($27.4 million) a month by funnelling [sic] dollars looted from banks during its takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul into legitimate currency markets in the Middle East.

It then makes huge returns on currency speculation, which are then wired back via unsuspecting financial authorities in Iraq and Jordan, a UK parliamentary committee was told on Wednesday.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (Isil) extraordinary venture into white collar crime is now a major source of income, along with oil smuggling and extortion from people living in Isil-controlled areas.

Details of the scam emerged during a hearing of a specially-convened Foreign Affairs sub-committee set up to examine Britain’s role in Isil financing.

The hearing was told that Isil finance chiefs would play the international stock markets using cash looted during their 2014 take over of Mosul, in which the group got its hands on an estimated $US429 million from the city’s central bank.

They also used money “siphoned off” from pension payments that are still being made by the Iraqi government to civil servants living in the city.

. . .