A San Diego “Gaza Charity” Allegedly Routed Hundreds of Thousands of Donor Dollars to Hamas.

The pitch looked like compassion: online appeals for “humanitarian aid” to suffering families in Gaza, run through a registered-sounding nonprofit and amplified across social media. Federal prosecutors say it was a front. According to a five-count criminal complaint unsealed on June 17, 2026, Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi, a 38-year-old San Diego resident, raised roughly $600,000through purported charity campaigns — and funneled the money to Hamas, the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, while skimming some for himself.

The Justice Department charged Sabassi with conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization, conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions law, wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, and making false statements. Of the approximately $600,000 raised between December 2023 and February 2024, prosecutors allege he sent about $116,000 to a Hamas member and tried to convert roughly $382,000into cryptocurrency to move to Hamas through Gaza Now — an outlet the U.S. Treasury sanctioned in March 2024 as a Hamas financial facilitator.

Sabassi was arrested in San Diego and presented before a U.S. magistrate judge there; the case is being prosecuted in the Southern District of New York, where some of the solicited donors were located. He has not entered a plea, and the charges are allegations. Under American law he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

• ~$600,000 — allegedly raised through online "charity" campaigns between Dec. 2023 and Feb. 2024 · Source: DOJ press release; Times of Israel
• ~$116,000 — allegedly sent to a Hamas member, per the complaint · Source: DOJ; Jerusalem Post
• ~$382,000 — allegedly converted, or attempted to convert, into cryptocurrency to move to Hamas via Gaza Now · Source: DOJ; JNS
• 5 counts — material support to Hamas, sanctions-evasion conspiracy (IEEPA), wire-fraud and money-laundering conspiracies, and false statements · Source: DOJ (SDNY)
• Up to 20 years — maximum penalty on each of the four most serious counts; the false-statement count carries up to 5 years · Source: DOJ Office of Public Affairs

The Justice Department announced the case on June 17, 2026. According to the complaint, since at least 2022 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 individuals in the United States and New York. He claimed to be raising money for humanitarian relief in Gaza. Prosecutors allege he was actually raising it for Hamas. The most serious counts — conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — each carry a maximum of 20 years in prison.

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“He allegedly raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through this scheme, which he then funneled to Hamas.”

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg — DOJ statement, June 2026 (according to the complaint)

The mechanics described by prosecutors fit a pattern federal investigators have flagged repeatedly since October 7, 2023: build a charity brand, post heart-wrenching images of war, collect money on mainstream platforms, then route the proceeds through cryptocurrency and foreign middlemen. The complaint alleges Sabassi raised about $600,000 over roughly three months, sent approximately $116,000 directly to a Hamas member, and attempted to convert about $382,000of the cash into cryptocurrency to send to Hamas through Gaza Now — the network Treasury had already named as a Hamas fundraising arm. The “Gaza Now” branding, analysts say, signaled to Hamas supporters that a campaign was official while looking legitimate to ordinary donors.

What separates this case from a garden-variety charity-fraud prosecution is the terrorism allegation sitting underneath it. The complaint alleges Sabassi did more than move money: he publicly expressed support for Hamas online and created an hour-long propaganda video of the October 7 Hamas attacks, then posted it to at least two social-media accounts he controlled — once a few months after the attack and again on its two-year anniversary. Prosecutors cite that conduct as evidence the fundraising was not a misguided humanitarian effort but a knowing attempt to support a designated terrorist organization.

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The San Diego complaint did not emerge in a vacuum. Israeli financial-intelligence officials estimated in early 2024 that Hamas was pulling in $8,000,000 to $12,000,000a month through online donations, much of it via organizations posing as Gaza charities — a sharp jump from before the war, according to Bloomberg’s reporting on those estimates. The FBI’s New York Field Office had publicly warned donors that charity scams were exploiting the conflict. In December 2025, Italian authorities arrested nine people accused of routing roughly €7 million (about $8,240,000) to Hamas-linked entities through ostensibly humanitarian fundraising. The Sabassi case is the American instance of the same alleged model.

Every figure here comes from a charging document, not a verdict. A criminal complaint is the government’s accusation; it is not proof, and Sabassi has the right to contest each count at trial. He is presumed innocent unless and until the government proves the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. The dollar amounts — the $600,000 raised, the $116,000 allegedly sent to a Hamas member, the $382,000allegedly bound for cryptocurrency — are the prosecution’s allegations, and they will have to be established by evidence. We report them as what they are: the sworn claims in a federal complaint.

The accountability story here is straightforward. Federal law makes it a serious crime to send money to a designated terrorist organization — and it does not matter how compassionate the cover story looks. Prosecutors say a San Diego man used a Gaza humanitarian appeal to raise $600,000and channel it to Hamas, the group behind the October 7 massacre. If the allegations hold up, the case is a reminder that the most effective terror-financing schemes do not look like terror financing — they look like charity. The complaint is unproven and Sabassi is presumed innocent. We will update this page as the case moves through the Southern District of New York.

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Last updated June 22, 2026