The House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing Thursday morning to discuss how the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is funded and how to cut that funding off.
“[The Islamic State] has taken in at least $20 million from ransoms this year,” said David Cohen, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
“It is reported that Islamic State now controls around 60 percent of the oil fields in Syria which are bringing in massive daily revenues to fund their operations,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., said.
The Islamic State is reportedly sitting on about $2 billion in assets, with their revenue coming largely from oil fields, ransoms and fundraising.
Cohen says from mid-June until recently, the Islamic State’s daily oil revenue was roughly $1 million.
“To further disrupt this market,” Cohen said. “We are targeting for sanctions anyone who trades in ISIL’s stolen oil.”
Cohen said the Treasury Department is also urging foreign partners to subscribe to the same no-ransom policy as the U.S. to stop innocent civilians from being kidnapped and to stop the flow of millions of dollars to the Islamic State.
