How Hamas Stores and Moves Money

Group Profile

Analyzing the fundraising strategies and expenses of terrorist organizations yields insights that help determine which counter-terrorism financing tools could be most useful to employ. Earlier this month, we highlighted how Hamas raises and uses funds. Examining how Hamas stores and transfers funds can reveal additional opportunities to disrupt the group's financial operations.

Hamas uses several different strategies to store and move its funds. The methods range in complexity— from simply smuggling cash, to creating a web of investments in real estate and construction ventures. Hamas’s techniques adapt as anti-money laundering or counter-terrorist financing strategies are employed against the group. Recently, the reported seizures of Hamas’s virtual assets have put the group’s use of cryptocurrency on the radar. Smuggling cash, investing, and using cryptocurrency, alongside exploiting financial institutions, conducting informal value transfers, and employing trade-based money laundering, are all Hamas techniques that we will investigate in this article.