Kirk Statement on Anti-Money Laundering Group’s Decision to Keep Iran on Terror-Financing Blacklist

WASHINGTON, D.C. —U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) issued the following statement after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a 37-member international body that monitors money laundering, decided to keep Iran on its blacklist of countries with terror-financing risks that threaten the international financial system:

“Banks and companies worldwide should know it remains risky and dangerous to do business with Iran.  As ‘the foremost state sponsor of terrorism’ according to the U.S. State Department, Iran is blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern under the USA PATRIOT Act’s Section 311.  While the Financial Action Task Force is correct to keep Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime on its blacklist, it was premature for FATF to suspend for one year its worldwide call for countermeasures to protect international financial sectors from Iran’s terrorist financing.”