A recent economic report revealed the involvement of several newly established exchange companies in money laundering, terrorist financing, and financial links with Iranian proxies in the region, as part of an extensive network of organized crime.
The report issued by the "Regain Yemen" Initiative stated that the Houthis have employed various methods to gain control over exchange companies and use them for their own benefit after destroying banks.
The militia also forced pre-coup exchange companies to conduct their financial transactions outside of any international or local oversight, and assigned them financial tasks such as supplying dues, collecting taxes, disbursing militia members' salaries, and distributing cash assistance to their members and the families of their deceased.
The report also stated that the militia use exchange companies to disburse funds and financial allocations to their leaders and members, making hundreds of billions of Yemeni riyals annually from exchange companies in their controlled areas in exchange for taxes, zakat (Islamic Alms), license renewals, and government fees. Additionally, the militia force exchange companies to provide large sums of money to finance sectarian festivals and events all the year around.
The report revealed that after that, the militia established their own financial network separate from the existing companies, which were subsequently subjected to harassment, persecution, kidnappings, looting, and extortion. This new Houthi network is used for financial transactions with Iran-affiliated factions in the region, smuggling and transferring money, purchasing weapons, and banned items.
The report warned that the Houthis' support for their exchange companies and undermining the banking and financial sector threatens the collapse of what remains of the Yemeni economy as a whole, in addition to the continuous breeding of exchange companies by the Houthis, which helps them evade international oversight and contributes to the growth of terrorist financing and the continuation of the war.
Since the Houthi coup and their control over the state and banking sector, they have systematically violated exchange companies, including arrests, raids, confiscations, looting, and various forms of pressure, with the aim of employing exchange companies to implement their agendas, eliminating these companies, and forcing them into bankruptcy, while replacing them with alternative companies loyal to them.
The most prominent violations committed by the Houthi militia against exchange companies include pressuring traditional exchange companies to transfer Iranian money and suspicious and illegal Iranian oil trade, as well as pressuring many traditional exchange companies to reduce their activities in favor of Houthi exchange companies that have emerged in the past four years, such as Al-Rawdha, Al-Ridhwan, Al-Nile, and others.
The "Regain Yemen" report recommended creating an environment to attract established exchange companies to move their headquarters from Houthi-controlled areas to government-controlled areas. It also called on the government to activate information exchange to monitor money smuggling through the outlets that support the balances of Houthi exchange companies abroad, and to refer the companies mentioned in the report to the Attorney General on charges of money laundering, terrorist financing, and harming the national economy.
