Federal customs and Financial Crime officials were among the witnesses at a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on evidence to combat the ark of antiquities trade. They outlined the way terrorist groups like isis you start sales to fund their operations. This hearing is an hour. The subcommittee will come to order. Members of the committee, members of the subcommittee on terrorism who participated in todays hearing, all members have 5 minutes in which to submit these materials to the chair for inclusion in the record. This hearing, the exploitation examining illegal activity and antiquities in the art trade. I recognize myself for 2 minutes to give an opening statement. The nature of the sale, historical artifacts, isis groups now destroying entire properties and putting them on the market for sale. Many times the money goes to terrorism. That is what we are here to discuss today. The rest of my statement will be printed into the record and i would yield two minutes to the gentleman from colorado. Thanks, mister chairman. History has shown art and cultural antiquities have always been trafficked due to their value. Trafficked. Trafficked. Sorry. Trafficked. Due to their value. Im going to start over. Is that okay . You have five minutes. History has shown that our cultural antiquities, and countless works of art during world war ii which will never be fully recovered. And with Cultural Heritage sites easily and. According to interpol, the black market and works of art becoming as lucrative for weapons and counterfeit goods. Evidence suggests 50,000 to 100,000 works of art are stolen, not surprisingly, 10 of stolen art is recovered and successful prosecution occurs less frequently. We must give credit to Law Enforcement agencies, and intellectual bodies in the private sector to address this problem. And continue to make the prevention of illegal trafficking and encourage strong interagency, some questions are how do we regulate marketplaces where these valuable pieces of art are exchanged, who are the buyers of stolen art and how can we track them better . What steps can be taken to better safeguard works of art to control sites and how are funds related to these antiquities being used to underwrite terrorist organizations, i look forward to looking forward to our witnesses and yields back to mister chairman. One minute to the gentleman. Mister chairman and Ranking Member, thank you for hosting this important briefing today. Let the task force this is no exception. Not only does this practice have a steady stream, isis historical locations throughout syria. And create enforcement. The industry is Strong Enough to impact isis. Mister chairman and staff, promoter sanctions policy. Yield back. We welcome the testimony of our witnesses, the Deputy Assistant secretary of policy in the bureau of Cultural Affairs at the Us Department of state, veteran Foreign Service officer, advancement of bilateral engagement, Program Development that grants budget oversight to Foreign Service of 201415, to the us embassy in baghdad, Strategic Communication for diplomacy efforts, and brian daniels, Research Associate for agricultural Property Protection and trade on religious conflict, and the director of Research Programs and Cultural Heritage center. Also he is concerned with preservation of indigenous heritage for 18 years, the native American Heritage related to sovereignty, cultural repatriation and heritage reservation. And in pennsylvania, from san francisco. Mister raymond dylan way for is the assistant director for Homeland Security investigations for National Operations responsible for 160 million in the oversight of 162 offices in 46 countries, the part of the fence based in 400 personnel, served numerous provisions that hs i for Financial Crimes and assets for removal in buffalo, new york, proceeds of prime units in washington dc and trade transparency in washington dc, special counsel agent in charge of the hsi office, most recently director for hsi operations. Each of you will be recognized to give up oral presentation. Each of your written statements will be made part of the record. You are recognized for five minutes. Turn on the mic. Thank you. Members of the subcommittee, elicit finance inviting me and my colleagues to the smithsonian to testify, with Cultural Property, earlier i submitted detailed written testimony for over decades, trafficking Cultural Properties. Related to cultural Property Protection. The bureau of Cultural Affairs, with cultural protection and preservation for the state department for the Cultural Heritage center. With Cultural Property implementation act or cpi a implements obligations to the United States under the 1970 convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing illicit import export and transfer of ownership of Cultural Property. Cpi a provides general Legal Framework by which the United States government can combat trafficking of properties through Bilateral Agreements. These agreements were miranda of understanding, import restrictions on certain categories of ideological and ethnic material. Import restrictions are intended to reduce incentives for looting and trafficking, keeping diluted material out of the us arsenal for the worlds largest. To date, we concluded Bilateral Agreements and implemented import restrictions on an emergency basis for legislation enacted by congress 20042016 respectively for iraq and syria. In addition to negotiating Bilateral Agreement to protect Cultural Properties the state department is coordinating the interagency convening Cultural Heritage coordinating committee, and the 2016 protect and preserve International Property act chaired by the eca assistant secretary. C hcc includes for Homeland Security interior defense. And the Smithsonian Institution. The task force established by the department, and the working group of the chc charged with responding to looting, antiquities, traffic and looting for archaeological sites around the world identifying and supporting Law Enforcement and diplomatic programs. Training for 25 systems and Customs Enforcement in april of this year, and agents have handson exposure to the Cultural Property and artifacts. With interagency colleagues, with social heritage, marched with bannerman since Cultural Heritage protection, with sponsorship of the Un Security Council resolution, 23, 47, Security Council resolution voted to Cultural Heritage protection. In addition acting under secretary for Public Diplomacy bruce morton, the delegation to the g7 cultural ministerial in florence italy, significant Market Countries for cooperation on Cultural Heritage for the primary topic of discussion. At the hand of terrorists this continues, more than 800 years, with a minaret, stood as a testament to the Cultural Heritage in iraq, the famous minaret, the ancient edifices. We strongly condemn, which further prove the terrorists had no respect for iraqs identity, culture and religion. The United States will stand for the free people of syria and partners around the world, our shared site against isis. I will take any questions. Thank you very much. Recognized for five minutes. Chairman pierce, distinguished members, for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss criminal and terrorist groups, i studied the subject as a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution and i would like to highlight a few key points. There is growing concern and compelling evidence that archaeological sites implicated in financing organized criminal activity and other terrorist networks. It is my view these developers represent recent innovation and restructuring of the overall antiquities. For much of the past 50 years the Illicit Trade and involves Regional Networks of looters, intermediaries who purchase them, distributors who purchase from intermediaries, collectors in the United States and western europe. These networks assert a stable, hierarchical multidecade supply chain. Existing laws in the United States such as the convention on Cultural Property implementation and current Law Enforcement responses oriented toward identifying, forfeiting or repatriating artifacts to these networks. In recent years reports have linked criminal and terrorist groups to antiquity sales. Some of these accounts are more credible than others. Commentators have indicated members allied with the taliban and al qaeda with protection for those who looted artifacts from afghanistan into pakistan. There have been suggestions of links in the insurgency following the second gulf war. The archaeological site began early in the Syrian Civil War it has been widespread under the control of the assad regime and other areas. Since 2014, more attention was given to the activities of isis in iraq, media stories attribute their income to monetary figures that strain all reasonable this type should not distract us from the looted antiquities to me leaders and militants, documentation about their direct involvement in trade. In late 2016 the Italian Government confirmed daesch expanded its activity into libya as part of a collaborative enterprise. How might traditional supply chains for the antiquities trade change in response to the interests of criminal and terrorist groups, we can expect looters to remain the same but intermediaries purchasing them from those loaders to be different. These buyers are likely to be opportunistic and treat them as a resource similar to us it other illicitly crafted resources. We also anticipate their participation would very according to the underlying market value other than antiquities, recess to electric demands and perceived and actual International Efforts to restrict the sale of illicitly trafficked it is also important to know the association between archaeological sites not only international problem, the United States, native american archaeological sites are targeted by those like italy and the southwest. And other materials for sale. In california, where i conducted an archaeological project recent prosecutions broke up criminal gang selling methamphetamine. At present we dont have consultation with tribal communities or basic research completed to understand how these are to operate. The illicit antiquities trade involved the integration of criminal networks, unlike more traditional trades that archaeologists, these require additional study, and disciplinary criminologists and criminologists familiar with research. And a group of 15 Us International universities to form a conflict culture. And the National ScienceFoundation Supported it. The liquid is trade and amount of funding, lowly improved for the research done. Thank you very much. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, Homeland Security investigations were referred to, Cultural Property, art and antiquities and to mitigate their trafficking, those not in the United States or moving any further, extending members of congress, the nation was confronted last week. This morning i would like to describe, also the cpa a program. With partners at these issues, i would like to highlight those property cases. And with the paa, a couple reasons for it. Customs law prohibits trafficking of merchandise to include cpa a. Initially the responsibility and unique tools will take a lead role in investigating crimes for import, export and distribution for Cultural Properties, with tribal, and local Law Enforcement, these are governmental organizations. We also worked with the department of justice to prosecute individuals and organizations responsible for these crimes. To assure investigating these crimes, reestablishing the cpa a program, the office of interNational Operations, the program has a 3part mission. The first one is trading and education. We actually partner with the department of state, the Smithsonian Institution and have to bring 400 Law Enforcement professionals including special agents and cvp offices, prosecutors and interagency so is this a possibility we have the tray transparency unit which is one of my old jobs that dedicates their time effort 100 to pursue trade base Money Laundering by working with the administration of the with better trading trade data. Something we are looking at and its very possible. Do we need to strengthen our capabilities in terms of, other countries, are they collaborating with us . Do you see a commitment in terms of our partners in being able to have the technology and the commitment to oversee tbn out . We work very well with International Community. Although that a different but sometimes we encounter is some customs administration, they are not Law Enforcement where the u. S. We carry a Law Enforcement region but then we work with the National Police force and the customs administrations so theres Good Partnership there is many countries that are willing to work with us under the customs mutual assistance agreements that are employed throughout the world. My time is about him. Thank you so much. Yield back. The time of the gentleman has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois mr. Foster. Thank you. Thank you anyone here, very tragic subject. What is the rough fraction of the sebaceous secondary market in terms of regions of the world . Western europe, asia, the gulf states and other arab states in north america . Just in rough terms. Are there other trends in that . How effective have we been, for example, in western europe and north america to at least restrict purchases to welldocumented, things have been documented to be in museums and then disappear . As well as items that were lifted out of the ground without documentation at all in the last couple years . I think the short answer to the question is that generally speaking, our research to date suggest it takes asked the nine years for the antiquities themselves to surface publicly at the in stage of distribution. What we do know about the antiquities we seem from syria more broadly that are not possible to link to daesh itself is that there generally being transshipped through Southeast Asia through country such as singapore, indonesia and thailand and then back to markets in western europe. Western europe predated the United States in placing import restrictions on looted material from syria, other European Union with a quick on this particular issue, and germany a much lesbian very focus on clamping down this kind of trade. We are not at the moment able to actually parse out in strict percentages where daesh mitra is specifically going to different Market Countries and destination for what we can say is we suspect this patrol is in the pipeline again from transshipment records received from Southeast Asia. We can also suspect that as mentioned the United States is the largest art market nation. Other significant nations include china, clued r