San Diego Man Charged With Using Gaza Charity Appeals to Fund Hamas

A San Diego man has been charged in a federal complaint with using Gaza charity appeals to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that prosecutors say were diverted to Hamas and for personal use.

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi, 38, was arrested in San Diego and charged with terrorism, sanctions-evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and false statement offenses.

The case comes as U.S. authorities continue targeting Hamas financing networks after the October 7 massacre. 

According to the complaint, Sabassi used social media accounts, crowdfunding websites and a putative charity called Ikram, The Arab Charity Foundation Inc. to solicit donations from around the world, including from people in the United States and New York.

Prosecutors said the campaigns were presented as humanitarian efforts for Gaza. They alleged, however, that Sabassi was actually raising money for Hamas.

Between December 2023 and February 2024, Sabassi allegedly raised about $600,000 through online fundraising campaigns. Prosecutors said he sent about $116,000 to a Hamas member and attempted to convert about $382,000 into cryptocurrency to send to Hamas through Gaza Now.

“As alleged in the complaint, the defendant exploited the barbaric acts of terror perpetrated on October 7, 2023, to attract donors to his fraudulent ‘humanitarian’ causes,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.

Eisenberg said Sabassi allegedly “raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through this scheme,” then funneled money to Hamas “to help finance that group’s terror and violence and to line his own pockets.”

The complaint says Sabassi worked with Gaza Now and other co-conspirators to operate the online fundraisers. Gaza Now was designated by the U.S. Treasury in March 2024 as part of what the Treasury described as a Hamas-aligned fundraising network.

Prosecutors also alleged that Sabassi and a co-conspirator privately joked about naming one fundraiser after Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades before agreeing to use Ikram instead.

The complaint says Sabassi publicly supported Hamas online, including by creating and posting an hour-long propaganda video of the October 7 massacre to at least two of his social media accounts. Prosecutors said he posted the video months after the attack and again on the two-year anniversary.

“The defendant allegedly claimed to be raising money for charity but was actually funding the terrorist organization Hamas and also lining his own pockets,” said Assistant Director Donald Holstead of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York said Sabassi is accused of acting from inside the United States to solicit and divert funds to Hamas.

“Hamas promotes attacks against the U.S. and has murdered dozens of Americans through acts of terror,” Clayton said. “Our 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.”

Sabassi is charged with conspiring to provide material support to Hamas, conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, conspiring to commit wire fraud, conspiring to commit money laundering and making false statements.

Four of the charges carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison. The false-statement charge carries a maximum penalty of five years.

Sabassi appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steve B. Chu in the Southern District of California after his arrest. The Justice Department stressed that the charges are accusations only, and that all defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.