FinCEN alert flags Hamas terrorist financing indicators
By Kyle Brasseur2023-10-23T16:49:00
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert warning financial institutions to be vigilant toward identifying funding streams supporting Hamas in its attacks against Israel.
The alert from FinCEN, published Friday, follows two weeks of conflict initiated by a Hamas attack on Israel that left more than 1,000 civilians wounded, killed, or taken hostage. The U.S. Department of State has viewed Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997; the group is already subject to counterterrorism-geared sanctions by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
FinCEN said it is working with foreign counterparts to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds worldwide. The agency listed the following red flag indicators related to the group’s terrorist financing activity: