Hamas money laundering network busted
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz signs military injunction ordering closure of private Gaza company involved in money laundering on behalf of Hamas, Islamic Jihad
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz signed a military injunction ordering the closure of a Gaza Strip company involved in money laundering on behalf of Palestinian terror.
The Israel Defense Forces and the police have been instructed to close down the company’s offices in Israel and in the Palestinian territories and to confiscate its assets.
The illegal activities of Abu Aker Food Imports and Marketing Ltd were busted following a joint investigation by the Shin Bet and the Drugs Authority. Investigators gathered evidence that brothers Faez and Mohammad Abou Aker funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hamas and Islamic Jihad through the company.
The leaderships of Hamas and Islamic Jihad paid for goods purchased by the Abu Aker brothers abroad. Once the goods were shipped to the Gaza Strip the brothers funneled large amounts of their revenues to terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Terror elements abroad have increasingly relied on money laundering and other underworld activities to funnel funds to Palestinian terror organizations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
A crackdown on illegal networks used by terror organizations to fund anti-Israel attacks is central to the fight on terror. Since the September 11 attacks in the United States, tight restrictions on monetary transactions around the globe increased the terror organizations’ dependence on private Palestinian businesses to finance terror activities against the Jewish state.
