A Syrian national was charged after allegedly funneling more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid to terrorist organizations — including al Qaeda.
According to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office, District of Columbia, 53-year-old Mahmoud Al Hafyan was charged in a 12-count indictment for allegedly diverting more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid intended for Syrian civilians to armed combatant groups.
The groups included the Al-Nusrah Front (ANF), which is a designated foreign terrorist organization affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq, the release said.
“This defendant not only defrauded the U.S. government, but he also gave the humanitarian aid he stole to a foreign terrorist organization,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves said. “While this foreign terrorist organization fought with the cruel al-Assad regime, the people who were supposed to receive the aid suffered.”
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A Syrian refugee woman carries her child as she prepares to go back home to Syria as part of a voluntary return, in the eastern Lebanese border town of Arsal, May 14. (Hussein Malla/Associated Press)
According to the indictment, Al Hafyan had access to U.S.-funded humanitarian aid after positioning himself as the head of a non-governmental organization (NGO). Authorities said that he managed 160 NGO employees at the humanitarian station in Syria.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that the NGO Alf Hafyan headed was awarded $122 million between January 2015 through November 2018. The agency noted that the money was intended to provide food and medical supplies in the war-torn country.
Along with at least two co-conspirators, Al Hafyan directed food kits valued at millions of dollars to commanders leading ANF. The designated foreign terrorist organization’s primary objective was the overthrow of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has a long-documented history of conducting mass executions of civilians, suicide bombings and kidnappings.
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To make it look like NGO was dispersing the kits to war-affected families in Syria, they allegedly inflated the amount of food kits received and falsified beneficiary logs, the agency said.
According to the affidavit, obtained by Fox News, Al Hafyan threatened the NGO’s employees who refused to comply to follow his orders to defraud. Along with threatening noncompliant workers, Al Hafyan forced employees at the NGO to donate portions of their salaries to support the terrorist organization.
“Not only was Al Hafyan supporting violent terrorists, but he was stealing money from the U.S. government that was meant for humanitarian efforts. This public indictment is the culmination of years of work,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani of the Washington Field Office Counterterrorism Division.
Displaced Syrians hold flags during a protest calling for an end to the strikes and for Ankara to open the frontier at the Atmeh crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border, in Idlib governorate, Syria. (Reuters/Khalil Ashawi)
Authorities said that the Syrian national sold the humanitarian kits on the black market to ANF commanders for this personal benefit.
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“Al Hafyan and his coconspirators falsified beneficiary logs and inflated the number of food kits received by war-affected families in the Syrian villages of Bweiti, Lof, [and] Mazratt-Sh,” the agency said.