US offers $10 million for Hamas financial information
The United States is offering up to $10 million for information on five Hamas financiers or anything leading to the disruption of the Palestinian militant group's financial mechanisms, the State Department said on Friday, Reuters reports.
The department’s Rewards for Justice program is looking for information on five financial facilitators who help manage Hamas’s investment portfolios and aid the group’s activities.
They are looking for information on Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb and Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah, who are operatives and part of Hamas’s network in Turkey. They also seek information on Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Mohamed Khair in Sudan and Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah, the department said in a release Friday.
Alshawa is the chief executive officer for Trend GYO and has served as a board member for several Hamas investment portfolio companies, according to the department.
Jahleb is the Hamas investment portfolio secretary and coordinates activities for Hamas-controlled companies and officials. Jadallah serves on the board of several investment portfolio companies, the department said.
Hamza is based in Sudan and is a Hamas financer who has managed several companies in the group’s investment portfolio. He was involved in the nearly $20 million transfer to Hamas officials, several of which have been deemed a specially designated global terrorist, the department said.
He has long-standing ties to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden-linked companies in Sudan, the release said.
Nasrallah is a longtime operative for Hams who has close ties to Iranian entities. He has been involved in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas, the department said.
The department is looking for information that would lead to the identification and disruption of Hamas’s sources of revenue or “its key financial facilitation mechanisms,” and any major donors or financial facilitators.
It is seeking information that may link to financial institutions, businesses or investments owned or controlled by Hamas, front companies that are engaged in dual-use technology for the group and criminal schemes that involve Hamas members that would financially benefit Hamas, the department said.
The State Department designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 and as a specially designated global terrorist in 2001.
