Palestinian activist group Hamas invested more than one million dollars over the past 10 years in US real-estate projects as part of a scheme to carry out "acts of terrorism," according to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to a recent ICE declaration, the investments were handled by the New Jersey-based BMI investment firm, headed by Egyptian and Hamas sponsor, Soliman S. Biheiri. The financing allegedly involved the construction of hundreds of new homes across the US, including suburban Maryland.
ICE senior agent David Kane said in the declaration that Biheiri used BMI to raise large sums of money through housing investments as a front to funnel money to more than 100 US-based Hamas charities and organizations. Biheiri was sentenced in January to a year in prison on immigration violations.
A principle investor in BMI's Oxon Hill project, involving the construction of 57 homes, was senior Hamas leader Mohammad Abu Marzook. In 1995, Marzook was designated by US authorities as a terrorist, whose actions threatened the Middle East peace process. He was later was expelled to Jordan, where he was deported to Syria for his ties to Hamas.
Hamas was designated by the US State Department as a terrorist organization in 1991. Intelligence sources estimate that the Palestinian group has an annual budget of $50 million, raising much of that money through its reputation as a charity. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
