The Associated Press
TORONTO (CP) -- A federal agency suspects terrorist groups moved $22 million through Canadian financial institutions last year, the Globe and Mail reported Thursday.
Nearly one-quarter of the total suspicious transactions reported to police last year by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or Fintrac, involved terrorist groups. The agency, charged with tracking illicit money flows, released its annual report Wednesday.
The report says Fintrac passed on 103 cases to police involving $460 million worth of possible money laundering and terrorism transactions.
Of that amount, 24 cases involving $22 million related to terrorist groups, 78 involved money laundering and one involved both. The report is for the year ended March 30.
Fintrac was created by the federal government in 2000 to help uncover illegal financial activities.
However, it has been only in the past year that the government completed the reporting requirements for a wide variety of entities, including financial institutions, brokerage firms, casinos and real estate agents.
Horst Intscher, Fintrac’s director, said the number and amounts involved in terrorism-related cases is cause for concern.
“Although $22 million is not large in comparison to the value of the money laundering disclosures we’ve made, given the relatively small amounts of money that are involved in perpetrating the terrorist act, $22 million is a figure that we need to take quite seriously,” he said.