Preventing Terrorists’ Misuse of Charitable Foundations: A Situational Crime Prevention Approach

This paper emphasizes the necessity of a strategy to prevent the misuse of charitable foundations for terrorist financing. Our preliminary assessment focuses on cases involving the misuse of charitable funds and charitable foundations around the globe. Following an introduction to the situational crime prevention approach, we then discuss the legal framework of such foundations and highlight their weaknesses that can be utilized by terrorists, in order to prevent their misuse for terrorist financing. We use one case study to explore whether aligning a situational crime prevention approach with the prevailing laws and regulations to counter-terrorist financing can prevent the misuse of charitable foundations. Our findings identify loopholes that can be misused by terrorists, because the current strategy still depends on the effectiveness of law enforcement and financial intelligence to detect and investigate terrorist financing. We suggest the use of a situational crime prevention approach to minimize the risk of terrorists’ misuse of charitable foundations, through consistent government intervention and the involvement of community liability. This paper is a study of the practicalities involved in countering terrorist financing from preventative perspectives and will be of interest to those involved in counter-terrorist policy-making, investigations, and technologies that can prevent terrorist financing. Keywords—crime prevention, foundation, terrorist financing