US Treasury Sanctions Hamas Network Over $2M Crypto and Charity Scheme

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned three individuals and two entities on Oct. 5 for operating a fundraising apparatus that funneled more than $2 million to Hamas ¹. The network allegedly combined deceptive humanitarian charities in France with digital asset transactions to finance the group's military operations ¹.

According to the Treasury release, the primary targets include Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, a Gaza-based deputy battalion commander in Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades, as well as France-based fundraisers Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid ¹. Between 2020 and 2026, the network directed over $2 million to Hamas, including $1.5 million raised after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel ¹. As part of the arrangement, Barika and Oualid forwarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to wallets controlled by al-Zaq ¹. OFAC also blacklisted Association Baraka and Ensemble C Mieux, two French organizations established by Barika and Oualid that solicited donations under the guise of Gazan humanitarian aid ¹.

Broad Enforcement Push

The enforcement action was conducted in tandem with a broader FBI operation targeting Hamas fundraising operations, involving domestic law enforcement agencies such as the New York Police Department ¹. The Treasury measures follow similar federal efforts to constrain illicit cross-border finance, such as the US Treasury Moves to Sever Russia-Linked A7 Shadow Banking Network.

Under the sanctions, all US-based property and financial interests belonging to the designated individuals and groups are frozen, and US persons are broadly prohibited from transacting with them ¹. Foreign financial institutions and virtual asset service providers that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for the sanctioned targets also risk secondary sanctions or exposure to enforcement penalties ¹. At the time of writing, $BTC was trading around $86,000.