The Roles of Central Asian States in (Anti-)Money Laundering and (Countering-)Terrorist Financing

Funding sources are presently shifting from large investments and financing by monarchies and individual states of the Middle East through large Islamic non-governmental organisations (NGOs) towards funding from individuals, large transnational corporations (TNCs), cross-border organised crime groups, as well as cross-border drug-organised groups. Before exploring the multifaceted and overlapping domains of ML/TF, it is necessary to address the most known terrorist groups in the region that use various forms of financial sources for their operations. Many international experts operate under the false impression that the issues of terrorist financing in Central Asia are less significant a problem than many make it out to be; rather, given their view that no major turnover of funds in regional banks can be detected, this is more of a problem for European countries. However, the issues of TF in Central Asia are of tremendous importance.