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But as the cases in the report reflect, the objective of the vast majority of tainted money transfers is the self-enrichment of corrupt officials who’ve pilfered public funds, not terrorism. And that’s clear outside the U.S., as well. In France, Transparency International has brought a case against three African leaders — Congo’s Denis Sassou Nguesso, Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang and Bongo’s estate in Gabon — claiming they allegedly used public funds to purchase around $200 million in French properties for themselves. A group of Cameroonian nationals based in France has also lodged a lawsuit in Paris accusing Cameroon President Paul Biya of buying French homes worth hundreds of millions of dollars with taxpayer funds. The three surviving leaders have rejected all accusations of corruption levied against them.

By Bruce Crumley

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the West moved quickly to crack down on the money laundering and secret banking systems that fund much of the terrorism in the world. But as evidence in both the U.S. and Europe suggests, illicit finances continue to circulate around the globe — and quite often the money has nothing to do with violence, but plain greed. Indeed, a new report released by the U.S. Senate this month cites cases of huge volumes of suspect cash being moved from Africa to the U.S. for no other reason than to fatten the bank accounts of crooked leaders, shady arms dealers and conniving middlemen. And experts warn that if these people can still shuttle suspected corruption money across borders for personal gain, similar methods remain open to terrorists, too. (See pictures of a jihadist’s journey.)

“As long as mass corruption, dirty money and banking secrecy are not eradicated together as a single priority, you’ll never defeat the sub-activity within that funding terrorism,” says Jacques Valerian, head of private sector programs at the Berlin-based anti-corruption organization Transparency International. “Western nations recognize the urgency to treat this problem when it involves terrorism, but they become more pragmatic when it’s in the form of ordinary corruption bleeding entire countries dry.”

Read the rest of this article at Time Magazine

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