Treasury designates two France-based charities over $2M Hamas crypto fundraising

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added two France-based associations and three individuals to the SDN list on October 2 over a six-year funding operation that routed more than $2 million to Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades, part of it through cryptocurrency transfers. The primary filing is Treasury press release SB0647, "Treasury Dismantles Major Hamas Financing Network."

What happened

OFAC's designation, taken under Executive Order 13224 (as amended), names:

• Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq — Gaza-based deputy battalion commander in the Al-Qassam Brigades, overseeing the financial transfers.
• Faouzi Barika — France-based operator of a sham charity.
• Amel Oualid — France-based operator of a sham charity.
• Association Baraka — the association controlled by Barika.
• Ensemble C Mieux — the association controlled by Oualid.

All five are added to the SDN list, blocking all US property and interests. US persons are generally prohibited from any transactions with them.

Treasury's filing says the network collected over $2 million between 2020 and 2026, with roughly $1.5 million flowing after October 7, 2023. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars" moved through cryptocurrency transfers to al-Zaq, per the release — the specific chains and addresses are not published in the press release.

Mechanism

The release describes the two associations as donation front-ends: public fundraising presented as humanitarian aid, with proceeds routed to al-Zaq's Gaza-based unit through a mix of banking channels and crypto rails. Treasury did not publish on-chain evidence or wallet addresses in SB0647; the designation itself relies on investigative work by Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, with cooperation from French authorities.

The Al-Qassam Brigades' prior guidance to donors — reported in CoinDesk's write-up of the filing — recommended Bybit, OKX and others while avoiding Binance, suggesting donors route through TRON. SB0647 does not name specific exchanges in the designated flows.

Impact

French regulatory and criminal referral is the open question. Treasury's SDN add is a US-side measure; the two associations and their principals sit in French jurisdiction. The French Treasury (TRACFIN) and the Paris prosecutor's National Antiterrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) typically open parallel criminal cases on designations of this specificity. The French government has not yet announced its own measures.

For exchanges, the designation creates immediate screening obligations: any address OFAC subsequently publishes against al-Zaq, Barika or Oualid is a listed-party match, and transactions touching listed addresses require blocking under US sanctions law — including by compliant non-US entities with US exposure.

What to watch

1. Any follow-up OFAC Recent Actions page listing specific cryptocurrency wallet addresses or TRON wallets tied to the designated parties.
2. French criminal action (TRACFIN notice, prosecutor opening, bank-account freezes) against Baraka, Ensemble C Mieux and their principals.
3. Chain-analysis attributions (Chainalysis, TRM Labs) linking identified wallet activity to the designated parties.
4. Whether EU-level listings follow — the EU typically mirrors US terror-finance SDNs within weeks.

Context

The SB0647 action is the second France-based charity structure Treasury has unwound tied to Al-Qassam Brigades fundraising. It fits a pattern of OFAC designations against Hamas crypto-finance networks running from the 2023 action against the Gaza-based Buy Cash and the 2024 TRON-centric fundraising campaigns. Blockchain Posts has previously covered the OFAC action against the A7 Network and the parallel French Treasury coverage of this same case.