RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Main image: Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, in black, with a group of Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine trainees, in 2022. (US Western District of Louisiana court) Inside story Gazan sham charities' crowdfunding funneled cash to alleged terrorists, US probes show Main image: Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, in black, with a group of Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine trainees, in 2022. (US Western District of Louisiana court) 3 federal investigations point to ties between terror activity and online fundraising, highlighting intersection of terrorism financing, social media and cryptocurrency See more Times of Israel on Google - add us as a Preferred Source By Luke Tress Follow You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page Today, 5:24 am Edit Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
In January 2024, a woman from Gaza created a crowdfunding campaign, asking strangers for donations to help reunite her family. “Rebuilding our lives: a journey from loss to hope,” she wrote , beneath photos of a beaming young family. The woman, Nieama al-Ghazzawi, said she and her two children had escaped Gaza but her husband had been left behind.
Her husband’s burger stand and their home had been destroyed, and the family could not afford fees for travel and a visa, al-Ghazzawi wrote on the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe.
“Your assistance means a lot to us. It will bring us back together,” she wrote.
The campaign circulated on pro-Palestinian social media, drawing hundreds of donations.
US federal investigators are now investigating that appeal as part of a probe into Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, who allegedly led a terrorist squad into Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught before moving to the US.
The incident is one of three recent federal US terrorism cases investigating humanitarian crowdfunding campaigns, highlighting potential abuse on a lightly regulated avenue for financial activity and the intersection of terror financing, social media and cryptocurrency.
In addition to the probe into al-Muhtadi, a second involves a New York-based anti-Zionist activist who was charged last month with sending funds to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. The third investigation centers around a California man who was charged with using sham charities to fundraise for Hamas.
Israel and its supporters have long accused international humanitarian groups funded by donors of cooperating with Hamas in Gaza.
In the US, the landmark case against the Holy Land Foundation in the 2000s found that the purported charity had funneled more than $12 million to Hamas.
In the decades since, US investigators have cracked down on financing for terrorism through purported charity groups, including in a major international case this month.
An FBI agent investigating the case said Hamas raises funds through several channels, including the diversion of humanitarian aid through “sham charities" that shield the terror group from law enforcement.
Like major NGOs, crowdfunding platforms allow donors to make contributions to humanitarian efforts in conflict zones like Gaza, but differ in that they are more decentralized, allowing individuals to set up campaigns to collect small donations.
The platforms raise funds for causes ranging from cancer treatments to student tuition, drawing in billions in donations each year. One of the leading firms, GoFundMe, founded in 2010, says it has raised more than $40 billion from a community of 200 million.
The recent federal cases indicate the platforms could also be abused, though.
Hans-Jakob Schindler, the senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, based in New York and Berlin, framed crowdfunding for terrorism amid larger issues surrounding humanitarian aid in conflict zones controlled by groups like Hamas in Gaza and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“You either pay [the ruling groups] or you don’t get access,” said Schindler, an adviser to government leaders on terror financing, including through crowdfunding.
Schindler said that crowdfunding platforms are generally not regulated like financial institutions, such as banks, that need to do due diligence to prevent crimes like tax evasion, money laundering and terrorism financing.
“The same as with all new technologies, it's pretty naive. They always think they cannot be misused, and, ‘This is making the world a better place.’ So their internal controls are, as a general rule, super weak,” he said, adding that the social media platforms hosting the campaigns are generally not legally obligated to monitor crowdfunding. Laws regulating crowdfunding vary by country.
Soon after the start of the Gaza war, crowdfunding campaigns for Gaza proliferated on social media, raising red flags.
The FBI warned in November 2023 that “criminals are soliciting donations during the Israel-Hamas conflict."
“Foreign terrorist organizations often establish fake charities using social media platforms to misdirect unwitting donors to subsidize their operations,” the FBI said .
Some of those concerns appear to have been borne out.
Al-Muhtadi allegedly assembled a team of armed terrorists and crossed into Israel to join the October 2023 attack at the behest of Hamas.
In June 2024, he submitted an immigrant visa application for the US, saying he did not have any weapons training, had no ties to terrorist groups and had not participated in acts of violence.
Al-Muhtadi arrived in Dallas, Texas, in September 2024. After Israeli investigators alerted the US to his alleged terrorism, FBI agents located him in Louisiana, where he was working at a restaurant.
He faces charges related to terrorism, visa fraud and making false statements and faces up to life in prison.
A court filing late last month showed that investigators were seeking reco...
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