AUSTRAC's acting CEO, John Schmidt, announced yesterday that the registration of remittance provider Bisotel Rieh had been suspended over a possible terrorism financing risk."We have invited Bisotel Rieh to provide submissions as to why we should not proceed to cancel the registration," Schmidt said. In a schedule attached to its "show cause" notice, AUSTRAC outlined its concerns and the steps that led it to this point. Suspicions were heightened when, on 8 May 2013, during an on-site compliance visit to Bisotel Rieh, which has its registered office in Sydney suburb of Lakemba, AUSTRAC officers were informed that, "Bisotel Rieh had not been able to obtain a bank account in Lebanon, [so] it arranged for bulk cash to be smuggled from Turkey into Lebanon."Given these circumstances, AUSTRAC undertook a further assessment of Bisotel Rieh's compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, with "particular reference to [an] individual and jurisdictions of concern."  Further work by AUSTRAC investigators established that, between 1 January 2014 and 31 August 2014, Bisotel Rieh had sent several international funds transfer instructions to individuals in Malaysia, Lebanon, and Turkey, with IFTIs to the latter two destinations totalling A$18.8 million dollars, carried out whilst Lebanon was the subject of Australian regime sanctions.Further comments made by AUSTRAC were that: Bisotel Rieh "routinely fails to provide the ultimate beneficiary details as to transactions made to high risk jurisdictions"; its records showed that, between 1 January 2014 and 31 August 2014, Bisotel Rieh submitted IFTI reports with an approximate value of $12.3 million; other reporting entities submitted IFTI reports to AUSTRAC in which Bisotel Rieh was listed as the ordering customer, with an approximate value of $21.3 million; and there is no obvious explanation for this $9 million discrepancy.If the cancellation action proceeds, Bisotel Rieh would be just the third entity to have its registration cancelled since AUSTRAC introduced a remittance register in 2011. The announcement comes less than one week after AUSTRAC launched its report, "Terrorism financing in Australia 2014", which stated that, while there is a "relatively low incidence of terrorism financing in Australia, the conflicts in Syria and Iraq currently pose the most significant terrorism financing risks to Australia."