# California man charged with using charity as an alleged ploy to financially support Hamas > Source: > Published: 2026-06-18 14:34:06+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...A 38-year-old San Diego man is being charged with allegations that he used social media and a charity to raise funds for humanitarian aid in Gaza as a ploy to financially support Hamas in its war against Israel, as well as personally enrich himself, according to federal prosecutors. Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi was charged Tuesday in federal court in New York with five counts: conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, sanctions-evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements in federal court. Sabassi was arrested Tuesday in San Diego and made his initial appearance before a San Diego federal judge. Sabassi’s defense attorney could not be immediately reached for comment. According to prosecutors, in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel — which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis and led to a war that killed over 73,000 Palestinians — Sabassi allegedly used social media, crowdfunding websites and a charity to support Hamas, a group the U.S. government and others have designated a foreign terrorist organization. In the complaint filed by prosecutors on Tuesday, Sabassi reportedly created and posted a video on social media in the months following the Oct. 7 attack that supported the violent attack by Hamas against Israel. Since at least 2022, Sabassi has also allegedly used his social media accounts and his charity, Ikram — The Arab Charity Foundation Inc., to solicit donations from people around the world and in the United States that he said would go to humanitarian aid in Gaza, prosecutors said. Before naming the charity, Sabassi allegedly joked with an unnamed co-conspirator that the charity should be named after al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said that between December 2023 and February 2024, Sabassi raised around $600,000 through online fundraising campaigns. The complaint states Ikram worked with Gaza Now, a website that prosecutors said is a Hamas-affiliated company, to help raise funds “to provide shelter, food baskets, medical supplies, as well as other basic necessities, to people in need.” However, Sabassi allegedly sent approximately $116,000 to a Hamas member and attempted to convert $382,000 of cash into cryptocurrency that he could then send to Hamas, prosecutors said. Gaza Now was [sanctioned](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2213) by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2024 on allegations that the organization was a key facilitator involved in fundraising for Hamas. Prosecutors also said Sabassi sent $5,000 to a personal cryptocurrency account and approximately $6,000 to his personal bank account to pay off his personal credit card debt. “Hamas promotes attacks against the U.S. and has murdered dozens of Americans through acts of terror,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in a statement Wednesday. “Our arrest of Reda Sabassi demonstrates our whole-of-government commitment to prosecute those who provide financial support to a malign terrorist regime that hates America.” Throughout the scheme, prosecutors said Sabassi was allegedly in contact with people associated with Hamas, sent messages that called for vengeance for Palestinians killed in the war and posted online messages supporting Hamas. The case was brought in the Southern District of New York, and Sabassi currently awaits extradition from San Diego.