“The defendant exploited the barbaric acts of terror perpetrated on Oct. 7, 2023, to attract donors to his fraudulent ‘humanitarian’ causes,” the U.S. Justice Department alleged.
Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi, 38, of San Diego, was arrested on fives charges for allegedly transferring $116,000 to a Hamas member in Turkey and trying to convert $382,000 into cryptocurrency to deliver to people connected to the terror group, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.
Sabassi faces charges of terrorism, sanctions-evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and false statement, and up to 85 years in prison, the department said.
The United States has designated Hamas as a terror organization since 1997.
The Justice Department alleges that all in all, Sabassi used online, crowd-sourced charity drives to raise about $600,000 ostensibly for humanitarian aid in Gaza but in fact funneled money to Hamas-related groups and used some of the monies for his personal expenses, including rent and credit card payments.