US Treasury

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
* Internal reports, bulletins, warnings and alerts relating to Hamas/the Islamic Resistance Movement
* Reports, bulletins, warnings and alerts relating to or mentioning Hamas/the Islamic Resistance Movement sent to or received from any federal law enforcement or intelligence agencies or any fusion center
* Incident reports investigating any activities of Hamas/the Islamic Resistance Movement
* Other documents relating to the Treasury targeting or designating financial ventures connected to Hamas/the Islamic Resistance Movement

CONTEXT:
According to Remarks by Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson at Deloitte's 15th Annual Anti-Money Laundering Conference (link: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1817), "Disrupting Hamas’ financing operations... has been a priority for Treasury for decades." It says that the "Treasury has worked closely with key jurisdictions that are vulnerable to Hamas’ illicit financial networks in order to improve their AML/CFT frameworks, expose these webs of connection, and facilitate host-nation enforcement and regulatory actions." Specific actions include:
- "In 2022, Treasury targeted Hamas’ global investment portfolios, a network of companies run by Hamas-associated businessmen with an estimated value of over $500 million."
- "In late 2019, Treasury designated six individuals and one entity for their ties to Hamas, including a senior Hamas financial leader, Zaher Jabirin, as well as one of the primary Iranian Qods Force liaisons to Hamas, Muhamad Izadi. "
- "We also designated the Redin Exchange, a money remitter based in Türkiye that transferred tens of millions of dollars to Hamas."
- "We support the significant progress Türkiye has made to address deficiencies in its AML/CFT regime as identified in their Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Mutual Evaluation."

ADDITIONAL INFO:
This FOI request is being filed in pursuit of a time-sensitive news story. Therefore, I ask that my request is expedited. When completing this request, please prioritize whichever records would take the least amount of time to be located and released. I would like these records in electronic format, sent via email or other digital method, and again, please release documents on a rolling basis, as they become available.

If you determine that any of the information qualifies for an exemption from disclosure, I ask you to note whether the exemption is discretionary, and if so whether it is necessary in this case to exercise your discretion to withhold the information. In any event, please provide a signed notification citing the legal authorities on which you rely if you determine that any of the information is exempt and will not be disclosed.

Also, I am a member of the news media as a reporter for Business Insider, and the requested documents are in the public interest and not being made for commercial purposes. Therefore, I ask that all fees are waived in the processing of my request. If fees associated with this request will be in excess of $25, kindly notify me in advance of fulfilling this request. As I am making this request as a journalist and this information is timely, I would appreciate your communicating with me if you have questions regarding this request.

Thanks again, and if there are any questions about my request, can provide any clarification that will help expedite the processing of my request, please contact me at email address. I am also happy to hop on the phone.

I look forward to your reply within 20 business days, as the statute requires and an even more prompt reply if you can make a determination without having to review the records in question.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Best,
Caroline

Thank you! I'm happy to speak to the program office. In EST, I'm free:
Nov. 9 — after 4:30PM
Nov. 13 — before 11AM, and from 12-2PM
Nov. 14 — before 10AM, and from 1PM-4PM
Nov. 15 — any time
Nov. 16 — any time
Nov. 17 — any time

I'm an employee for Business Insider.

I also sent this to the Treasury FOIA email from my work email, chaskins@insider.com