San Diego Man Charged with Sanctions Evasion & Funnelling Charity Funds to Hamas

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has unsealed a five-count complaint against Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi, 38, of San Diego, charging him with terrorism, sanctions evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and false statement offences linked to the diversion of purportedly charitable donations to Hamas. Sabassi was arrested in San Diego and presented before a US magistrate judge in the Southern District of California.

According to the complaint, Sabassi solicited donations from in or around 2022 through social media, crowdfunding platforms and his charity, Ikram — The Arab Charity Foundation Inc (Ikram), claiming to fund humanitarian aid in Gaza. Between December 2023 and February 2024 he is alleged to have raised approximately $600,000, of which around $116,000 was sent to a Hamas member, with a further $382,000 in cash he attempted to convert into cryptocurrency for onward transmission to Hamas via Gaza Now. He is alleged to have worked with Gaza Now and other co-conspirators to operate the fundraisers, having created and circulated propaganda material relating to the 7 October 2023 attacks.

The matter illustrates familiar charity-sector and crowdfunding typologies of concern to compliance teams: the exploitation of legitimate humanitarian appeals as a cover for terrorist financing, the use of registered charitable vehicles to confer legitimacy, and the layering of fiat into cryptocurrency to obscure onward flows. The case also reinforces the supervisory value of the OFAC designation framework — Gaza Now and two of Sabassi's co-conspirators were designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) under Executive Order 13224 in March 2024 — and underscores the exposure run by payment processors, money services businesses and virtual asset service providers handling donation-linked flows from high-risk corridors. The charges remain allegations; Sabassi is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

Read the press release here.