Houthi leader Ali Salem Al-Saifi and his role in financing the militia's Interior Ministry and taking over YR200 billion annually

The Platform for Tracking Organized Crime and Money Laundering in Yemen (P.T.O.C) revealed that Ali Salem Al-Saifi, who was appointed by the Houthis in 2015 as the Deputy Minister of Interior for Financial and Administrative Affairs, established a currency exchange company "Lite Exchange" Company and linked it to Al Rawdha Company to facilitate and provide financial liquidity, money laundering for financing Houthi terrorism and illegal enrichment for Houthi security leaders by transferring all financial allocations and resources exceeding YR200 billion annually.

The platform said in its new report "The Houthis' Secret Financial Entities" that the militia appointed Saifi as the financial head of the ministry to oversee the management of funds, budget, and investments of the Ministry of Interior, which are estimated in the tens of billions of riyals.

During the years when Al-Saifi held the position of Deputy Minister of Interior, he adopted a financial and a special policy that primarily served the Houthis and funded them, especially the so-called popular committees and their security elements, following a wide-scale discharge of members of the Ministry of Interior during the year 2015.

Al-Saifi was able to take control of the investments of the Ministry of Interior and its investment shares in the public, private, and mixed sectors, especially the Ministry of Interior Retirement Fund, which owns partnership shares in many Yemeni joint stock companies such as Yemen Mobile Company, Saudi German Hospital, and others. In addition to investing in the rental income of the fund's private properties, which have an average monthly income of over a million dollars.

Moreover, Al-Saifi exploits his position in the arms trade, as he owns a factory that produces light and medium weapons and ammunition, which are sold in the local market claiming it "Made in Yemen". This trade brings in billions in profits for Al-Saifi and the Houthi militia.

In the first few months, Al-Saifi utilized the resources of the Ministry of Interior, including funds from the Ministry of Interior Retirement Fund, revenues from the Civil Status and Civil Registry Authority, revenues from the Immigration and Passports Authority, allocations from the Rehabilitation and Reform Authority, allocations from the Tribal Affairs Authority, allocations from the Coast Guard, revenues from the General Traffic Department, revenues from the Public Security, and revenues from the Criminal Investigation Department, as well as other various government fees, to establish a complex financial and commercial network through investments in currency exchange companies, security services, contracting, mining, import and export, transportation, and car rental companies.