Hawala Lala Ding Dong Fraud

Okay. I am not going to even pretend I begin to understand the ins and outs of Islamic wheeling and dealing. But as this seems integral to how suitcases of cash went out of the country, I’m going to give it a whirl. 

What’s going to make it a dang sight easier is the wonderful Data Republican, who has turned her laser sights on an interview given by someone who knew all about how the Muslim practice of ‘hawala’ works, and then seemingly hung his compatriots out to dry, explaining it in that interview.

First, as simple an explanation of the concept of hawala as I can manage, courtesy of Investopedia, hitting the salient points:

• Hawala is an informal money transfer system, operating outside traditional banking, that relies heavily on trust and personal networks to move funds without actual money changing hands.
• Originally developed in South Asia, hawala remains a popular alternative for sending remittances due to its low fees, speed, and accessibility, particularly in regions lacking formal banking infrastructure.
• While beneficial for quick, low-cost financial transactions, hawala systems also pose risks as they can be exploited for money laundering, tax evasion, and financing terrorism due to their lack of formal records.
• Many countries, such as the U.S. and India, have laws against hawala due to regulatory and anti-money laundering concerns, though it remains legal under strict regulations in places like Dubai.
• Fintech solutions have started to incorporate elements of the hawala model to aid financial inclusion in underbanked regions through mobile banking and payment platforms.

You already see several areas where the United States might have a problem with an ‘informal banking system’ that keeps no records and reports to no one.

TRUST US

This X account explains how a hawala transaction would look and work in real life.

Hawala is a network of money brokers that function like an unregulated Western Union of the Middle East and North Africa. Brokers keep large amounts of cash and communicate outside of the regulated banking system. When you wish to send money to someone in, say, Somalia, where…

— Plastic Straw Republican (@SmartMaticEng) January 15, 2026

…When you wish to send money to someone in, say, Somalia, where there is little to no presence of banking institutions, a Hawaladar broker may be your only option.

Got that? Now, imagine you are a prosperous Somali Learing Center owner who needs to send goat purchase money to your granny in Somalia. There are no Western Unions or Navy Fed branches there. What to do?

Hello, hawala.

Say a Hawaladar in Minneapolis has a client who requests to send $1,000 USD to Puntland, Somalia. The Hawaladar accept the cash and takes a cut (say, 3%) and contacts a Hawaladar in Puntland. They agree on an authorization method (a challenge-response phrase , authentication… pic.twitter.com/QlnZetWcPI

— Plastic Straw Republican (@SmartMaticEng) January 15, 2026

…They agree on an authorization method (a challenge-response phrase , authentication token, or ID pair) and provide that method to the sender. The sender provides the authorization method to the recipient, and the recipient picks up their cash from the Hawaladar in Puntland, less the service fee that both Hawaladars collect.

Granny gets the message that her goat money has arrived and goes to retrieve it from the Puntland hawala broker. She’s got her $1000.

But, as the author of this enormously helpful thread points out, the broker in Somalia is now out the grand he gave your granny, and that needs to be repaid. As there are no reciprocal exchanges coming from Somalia to the US, this has to be handled quickly.

Enter the suitcases filled with cash headed to the Horn of Africa. They are paying the hawala dealers the cash they are owed for these transactions.

Cash is ‘constantly being sent by courier to Somalia.’

Hawala services are all over the Minneapolis area, and, again, as the poster notes, operate outside the US banking system, so Secretary Bessent’s lowering of the reporting threshold for remittances will probably have little impact.

Convenient, no?

Finally, is any of this illegal? I don’t know. Even though I’m convinced that there is an extensive Somalian organized crime network committing medicare fraud in Minneapolis, it’s also true that if you have a cousin in Somalia who you want to assist financially, Hawala networks…

— Plastic Straw Republican (@SmartMaticEng) January 15, 2026

 …it’s also true that if you have a cousin in Somalia who you want to assist financially, Hawala networks may be your only recourse. So its almost certainly the case that legally earned and illicit funds are commingled in these suitcases that are passing through MSP airport. End of thread.

What is also true is that any money going to hawala brokers in the central and southern part of Somalia is getting into the hands of Al-Shabaab, who function as the de facto government in the rural areas there. So, yes, the American tax dollars headed through the Minneapolis airport are most assuredly supporting terrorists, even if some of it is only in the fee granny pays when she picks up her goat money outside of Mogadishu.

What Data Republican did was read this fellow’s fine thread, and then a 2020 interview with Ibrahim Hirsi, whom the University of Minnesota (there we go again with those guys) has listed as a PhD candidate in history.

…His research and teaching focus on twentieth-century America, U.S. immigration and migration, transnational maritime labor, colonial Africa, and the Black diaspora…

Of course it does.

He is bemoaning the fact that, in the COVID era with international flights shutting down, the cash is piling up in the MN hawala broker, and the suitcases cannot run through the airports to get to Somalia or any of the numerous countries (!) that the MN Somalis send cash to.

what the… pic.twitter.com/lw6VpcKMp3

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) January 16, 2026

WAIT, WHUT

It’s a great inconvenience. But then the chatty Kathy Ibrahim drops the bombshell, when asked, ‘Well, but you’re still sending money – how are you doing that?’

OH, WE HAVE BANKS HELPING US

WHICH BANKS?

CAN’T TELL YOU

WAIT, WHUT

Looks like the next step is identifying those 2 banks pic.twitter.com/vZNPuCFxV9

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) January 16, 2026

Ibrahim goes on to praise the efforts of then-Congressman, now MN Attorney General, Keith Ellison to get the federal government to lighten up on the remittance restrictions.

Curiously, his partner in that effort was the now rampaging fraud-fighter, MN Republican Congressman Tom Emmer. Oh. Do tell.

Ellison’s advocacy stemmed from his constituents’ needs in a district heavily impacted by remittance restrictions. pic.twitter.com/d3ZyYpyJlf

— MAGA ME (@MyHandleNo) January 16, 2026

Check out this 2017 Alpha News story.

Rep. Keith Ellison and Rep. Tom Emmer are teaming up to bring back Somali-American remittances with a new pilot program.

Scott Paul, a senior humanitarian policy advisor for Oxfam, recently tweeted his thanks to Ellison and Emmer for working on the project. Oxfam is a development organization that focuses on the “injustice of poverty.”

Remittances, or money transfers, allows Somali-Americans to funnel money earned here in the U.S. back to their family in their home country. Remittances are considered by many to be the lifeblood of Somalia, with the World Bank estimating up to $1.4 billion being transferred annually. This accounts for up to 23% of their GDP, and is more than the U.S. government gives to the country in foreign aid.

To no one’s surprise, Omar is busy making sure suitcases keep moving through airports, too.

From another article: Ilhan campaigned on Hawala money transfers. Yeah, she knew. pic.twitter.com/nTmwSxo1cH

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) January 16, 2026

Interestingly enough, the hawala system was also used to gather the massive amount of cash – $120K – used in the attempt to bribe a juror in the Feeding Our Futures fraud trial.

They are just that handy a service.

Everyone should familiarize themselves the term Hawala. The Somalis used this to bribe jurors in their 250 million dollar fraud case. I think they used it to launder money out of the country as well. Bookmark it. It’s a shadow network of Somali financiers/ informal banks. pic.twitter.com/PM7qICIfBW

— Eric CIAramella’s Dirty Whistle (@TheAndersPaul) January 9, 2026

No wonder it’s a dang inconvenience when the US government gets in the way, and it’s just not granny’s goat herd affected, believe you me.

I hope this little journey through Hawala World has been illuminating…and really pissed you off royally.

Sure must be great to move to a new, better country, have them support your every need, and loot the crap out of them. Then, on top of it, using your third-world system, to walk out with the stolen goods right underneath everyone’s nose.

Bonus points for calling someone a racist if they ask about it.

Sure must be sweet,

I tell you what – Americans are such frickin’ patsies.

We never lear.

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