OFAC Sanctions Hamas Financiers, Members, Crypto Exchange

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned various Hamas members, operatives and financial facilitators in an effort to “root out” the terror group’s revenue sources in the West Bank, Gaza and throughout the region. OFAC said the designations build on the nearly 1,000 people and entities already sanctioned by the agency and who are connected to terrorism and terrorist financing by the Iranian regime and its “proxies.”

The sanctions target various Hamas members and financiers, including West Bank-based Musa Muhammad Salim Dudin, Sudan-based Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Mohamed Khair and several people involved in Hamas’ investment network in Turkey and Algeria, including Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb, Aiman Ahmad Al-Duwaik and Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah.

Others sanctioned include Qatar-based Hamas operative Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah and Ayman Nofal, a military commander allegedly killed in an airstrike this week. OFAC also designated Gaza-based virtual currency exchange Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company and its operator, Ahmed M. M. Alaqad, for helping Hamas’ fundraising efforts and aiding the transfer of funds for other terrorist groups. A former OFAC official said earlier this week that the agency could sanction cryptocurrency services connected to Hamas (see 2310160054).

“The U.S. Treasury has a long history of effectively disrupting terror finance and we will not hesitate to use our tools against Hamas,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, adding the agency will “continue to take all steps necessary to deny Hamas terrorists the ability to raise and use funds to carry out atrocities and terrorize the people of Israel.”