{"id":498752,"date":"2026-06-18T08:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T08:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498752\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T08:57:09","slug":"san-diego-man-caught-laundering-charity-money-to-hamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498752\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego man caught laundering charity money to Hamas"},"content":{"rendered":"

A San Diego resident was arrested on suspicion of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas through fundraising campaigns that appeared to be humanitarian aid efforts for residents of the Gaza Strip, the US Justice Department<\/a> announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi, 38, of San Diego, California, was charged in a five-count criminal complaint with terrorism, sanctions evasion, wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements, according to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

Sabassi was arrested Tuesday and appeared before US Magistrate Judge Steve B. Chu in the Southern District of California. If convicted, he could face significant prison terms. Each of the four charges carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, Sabassi allegedly operated social media accounts, crowdfunding websites, and a purported charity called Ikram – The Arab Charity Foundation Inc. Through them, prosecutors said, he solicited donations from around the world, including from US citizens, while claiming that the funds were intended to provide humanitarian<\/a> aid in the Gaza Strip<\/a>. In practice, prosecutors alleged, the money was intended to support Hamas.<\/p>\n

Court documents allege that between December 2023 and February 2024, Sabassi raised approximately $600,000. Of that amount, he allegedly sent approximately $116,000 to a Hamas member and attempted to convert approximately $382,000 into cryptocurrency in order to transfer the funds to Hamas through Gaza Now, a Hamas<\/a>-linked fundraising organization.<\/p>\n

\" J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Building WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 3: A Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation sign is displayed outside of the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation building on June 3, 2026 in Washington, DC. (credit: Kevin Carter\/Getty Images)Sabassi publicly expressed support for Hamas on social media<\/p>\n

Investigators also alleged that Sabassi publicly expressed support for Hamas on social media. Among other things, he allegedly created an hour-long propaganda video about the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and posted it to at least two social media accounts that he controlled, including around the second anniversary of the massacre.<\/p>\n

The complaint further alleges that in private conversations with one of his co-conspirators, the two joked about naming the fundraising campaign after the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas\u2019s military wing, before ultimately deciding to use the name of Sabassi\u2019s charity, Ikram.<\/p>\n

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Sabassi allegedly exploited the October 7 attacks in order to draw donors to fraudulent \u201chumanitarian\u201d causes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe allegedly raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through this scheme, which he then funneled to Hamas to help finance that group\u2019s terror and violence and to line his own pockets,\u201d Eisenberg said.<\/p>\n

US Attorney says Hamas had promoted attacks against the US and murdered dozens of Americans in acts of terrorism<\/p>\n

US Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York said Hamas had promoted attacks against the United States and murdered dozens of Americans in acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur arrest of Reda Sabassi demonstrates our whole-of-government commitment to prosecute those who provide financial support to a malign terrorist regime that hates America,\u201d Clayton said.<\/p>\n

The FBI also stressed the severity of the allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant allegedly claimed to be raising money for charity but was actually funding the terrorist organization Hamas and also lining his own pockets,\u201d said Donald Holstead, assistant director of the FBI\u2019s Counterterrorism Division.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department said the charges are accusations and that Sabassi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Diego resident was arrested on suspicion of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4670,12211,51,42,43,29629,40,38,41,39,1032,65964],"class_list":["post-498752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-california","tag-fbi","tag-hamas","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-department-of-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}