Days after the PA secured more than $1 billion in aid pledges, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy raises a cautionary flag. According to Israeli, US and Palestinian intelligence, the PA’s new minister of economy, Mazen Sunuqrut, has ties to Hamas and may have helped the terror group launder money:
Palestinian, Israeli, and U.S. intelligence agencies have all linked Sunuqrut to Hamas, primarily through a family company in which he is part owner and a bank whose board of directors he led. According to an undated Palestinian General Intelligence report seized by Israeli forces in 2002, Palestinian security officials determined that the Ramallah/al-Bireh Zakat Committee laundered funds raised abroad through local banks, money changers, and businesses with ties to Hamas….
As it happens, Sunuqrut served as president of the board of directors for Beit al-Mal. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, which designated both Beit al-Mal and the affiliated al-Aqsa Bank as terrorist entities in December 2001, “The majority of [Beit el-Mal’s] founders, shareholders, and employees are associated with Hamas. Persons identified with Hamas hold a majority of the company’s stock, and it has invested in projects in Gaza and the West Bank that are owned or managed by Hamas activists.” Moreover, U.S. investigators found that “Beit el-Mal transfers money to and raises funds for associations that the Palestinian Authority itself has identified as belonging to Hamas, and to known Hamas activists and convicts who are members of Hamas.” Israel shut down Beit al-Mal operations on its soil in 1998, citing the bank’s extensive ties to Hamas and briefly detaining several of its officials.
(Hat tip: Daily Alert)
