Hamas’ cash smuggling
European Union monitors were posted at the Egyptian border of Rafah to oversee controls related to smuggling cash by Hamas in 2006. For regular travelers entering Gaza through Rafah, sums over NIS 80,000 shekels ($19,000) must be declared. Diplomats estimated that Hamas, whose government is restricted by U.S. and EU sanctions, has managed to bring about $80 million through Rafah in 2006, obviously without declaring the funds. Hamas says the funds are used to keep the government it heads functioning. Israel says they are being used to finance militants.
Even now, Hamas officials are regularly ’caught’ while smuggling millions in cash. In February 2009, Egypt forced Hamas official Ayman Taha (part of a delegation visiting Egypt for cease fire talks) to deposit more then $11 million in cash in a bank in the Egyptian town of El Arish on Thursday after he tried to bring it into Gaza. Taha later crossed into Gaza without the money. In May 2009, an Hamas’ spokesman was stopped with around $800k in a money belt. He told reporters that “I was bringing a sum of money, which was donated by our people abroad for the Palestinian people, but unfortunately some people working at the crossing confiscated this money”. So on a regular basis, Hamas related individuals are stopped by Egyptian security forces while smuggling large amounts of dollars and euros into Gaza.
According to several sources, Hamas has two main routes to smuggle cash into Gaza. The first is having diplomats carry the cash back from their trips. The second is by transporting it unseen through an elaborate network of tunnels. Israel bombed these tunnels in December 2008 and January 2009 to block smuggling of weapons and cash. How about a logical third financial route; not back to Gaza but to a bank in a loosely regulated country? Or even closer to home in a strictly regulated country?
Other than a logistic challenge to get cash to the right place at the right time, Hamas will for sure have the same problem in the non cash environment. Since Hamas and related individuals are on ‘freeze’ and sanction lists with financial institutions, they have to dig the equivalent of tunnels in the regular financial industry to place or move its funds unseen. Are we just as good (or bad) in detecting these wire movements as we are detecting the cash at the border? Better hope you are not involved in a tunnel that runs through your books; you will have the equivalent of an MOAB coming your way.
http://www.world-check.com/articles/2008/12/30/their-tunnels-flattened-what-will-hamas-cash-smugg/
