OFAC Sanctions Hamas Fundraisers, Issues General Licenses
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three people and a “sham charity” that it said are international financial supporters of the terror group Hamas. It also designated a “longstanding” Hamas supporter and nine of his businesses for their ties to the group. OFAC said they each “play critical roles in external fundraising” for Hamas, often by disguising their support as charity.
The designations target Mohammad Hannoun, an Italy-based Hamas member who created the Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which claims to raise money for humanitarian purposes but helps “bankroll” the military wing of Hamas, OFAC said. The agency also sanctioned Majed al-Zeer, the senior Hamas representative in Germany who runs the group’s European fundraising, and Adel Doughman, who is in charge of Hamas activity in Austria.
OFAC also sanctioned Hamid Abdullah Hussein al Ahmar, a Yemeni national living in Turkey, who the agency said is one of the “most prominent international supporters” of Hamas. The agency sanctioned nine businesses owned by al Ahmar: Yemen-based Al Ahmar Trading Group, Al Ahmar Oils Supply and Distribution, Sama International Media, and Al Salam Trading and Agencies General Establishment; Czech Republic-based Saba, Trade & Investment S.R.O.; Lebanon-based Sabafon International SAL; and Turkey-based Sabaturk Dis Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Vivid Enerji Yatirimlari Anonim Sirketi and Investrade Portfoy Yonetimi Anonim Sirketi.
New General License No. 30 authorizes the wind-down of certain transactions with Al Ahmar Trading Group, Al Salam Trading and Agencies General Establishment, Sabaturk Dis Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Vivid Enerji Yatirimlari Anonim Sirketi and Investrade Portfoy Yonetimi Anonim Sirketi, along with any entity they own by 50% or more. Those transactions are authorized through 12:01 a.m. EST Nov. 21.
Another new license, General License No. 31, authorizes certain transactions related to the divestment or transfer of debt or equity of Investrade Portfoy Yonetimi Anonim Sirketi and any entity it owns by 50% or more. Certain transactions that are “ordinarily incident and necessary to facilitating, clearing, and settling trades of covered debt or equity that were placed” before 4 p.m. EDT on Oct. 7 are authorized through 12:01 a.m. EST Nov. 21. The license also said that certain transactions necessary to the wind down of derivative contracts entered into before 4 p.m. EDT on Oct. 7 are authorized through 12:01 a.m. EST Nov. 21
OFAC also sanctioned Al-Intaj Bank, which it said is an unlicensed Hamas-run bank in Gaza that helps Hamas evade international sanctions by operating outside the international financial system. The bank operates through a permit from the Hamas-led administration in Gaza and not the Palestine Monetary Authority, OFAC said.