The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned five people and entities in a financing network that it says moved more than $2 million to Hamas between 2020 and 2026. The October 2 action covers one member of Hamas’s military wing, two fundraisers in France and the two organizations they controlled.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control described the operation as a mix of purported charities, money-services businesses and cryptocurrency wallets. That combination is central to the case: crypto was one transfer channel inside a broader fundraising structure, rather than the entire scheme.
Who OFAC designated
OFAC named Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, a Gaza-based battalion deputy in the Al-Qassam Brigades. According to Treasury, al-Zaq oversaw a financial network that used money-services businesses and crypto wallets to send funds to the group’s military wing.
The action also names France-based fundraisers Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid. Treasury says Barika jointly established Association Baraka with al-Zaq, while Oualid established Ensemble C Mieux. Both organizations presented themselves as humanitarian charities but were used to collect money that reached al-Zaq and Hamas, according to the government’s account.
OFAC says the three individuals collected more than $2 million over six years. About $1.5 million was collected after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Treasury also says Barika and Oualid sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to al-Zaq, who advertised their fundraising accounts through his social-media profiles.
What the sanctions do
The designations were made under Executive Order 13224, the United States’ counterterrorism sanctions authority. Property and interests in property belonging to the designated parties are blocked when they are in the United States or held by U.S. persons. Entities owned 50% or more by blocked persons are also blocked under OFAC’s aggregation rule.
Absent an OFAC license or exemption, U.S. persons generally cannot conduct transactions involving blocked property. Treasury also warned that foreign financial institutions may face secondary-sanctions exposure if they knowingly handle certain significant transactions for designated people or entities.
A sanctions designation is an administrative action, not a criminal conviction. Treasury said the action formed part of a wider FBI-led operation involving several Hamas fundraising ventures and local law-enforcement partners. The public release does not identify the crypto assets, wallet addresses, exchanges or transaction dates involved, so it does not support conclusions about which networks or service providers carried the transfers.
Why the channel mix matters
The case shows why investigators follow control and destination rather than treating the payment rail as the whole story. The alleged network paired familiar fundraising fronts with money businesses, social promotion and crypto transfers. Compliance teams therefore need to connect wallet activity with ownership, charity records and sanctions relationships instead of evaluating blockchain transactions in isolation.
Adapted from Treasury Sanctions Hamas Financing Network That Moved $2M Through Crypto.