ISIS may be amongst the most evil organisations the world has ever seen, there’s no denying that, but they do have a knack for making serious money.

2014 saw them rake in around $2 billion through a number of means, making them the best financially endowed terrorist organisation of all time. They even have a structured payment system, soldiers earning around $1 000 a month and skilled engineers and technicians more than $1 500.

So how do they go about bringing home the bacon and financing their global reign of terror? CNN with these stats below:

Taxes – $360 million a year

A huge amount of the money comes from the 8 million civilians who live and work in territory taken over by ISIS soldiers.

…ISIS also extorts its residents at every corner. Schoolchildren must pay monthly fees: $22 for elementary students, $43 for older kids and $65 for university students, according to congressional researchers. These are fees residents didn’t have to pay before.

It costs anywhere from $200 to $1,000 to bribe ISIS guards when traveling on Iraqi roads into their territory…

Oil – $500 million a year

ISIS has hijacked oil wells and refineries. But it doesn’t have the expertise or equipment to properly manage it at full capacity.

Numbers are all over the place. But the best estimates say ISIS in 2014 was producing close to 50,000 barrels per day, less than half the region’s potential. And it was still raking in up to $1.6 million daily, according to the UN

Bank looting – $500 million to $1 billion

When ISIS gains new territory, it claims control of banks. In 2014, the Islamic State stole up to $1 billion from banks this way.

Kidnapping ransoms – $20 million to $45 million a year

American journalist James Foley was kidnapped in 2012, and ISIS demanded $132 million. It wanted $200 million for two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa. Neither country paid, and both were murdered on video…

But some nations do pay ransoms. One by one, Foley’s cell mates in Raqqa, Syria were released because their countries paid for them. French, Italian and Spanish hostages were freed…

It’s not really fair to say that money is the root of all evil, someone like Mark Zuckerberg pledging to give 99% of his wealth to charitable causes, but when in the wrong hands it is frightening to see the terror it can finance.

The financial clout of ISIS means that the world has more than an ideology to tackle, they have a fully functional financial state hell-bent on destruction.

[source:cnn]