Terror victims sue leading Qatari institutions for laundering money through the United States to finance terrorism

Today a milestone lawsuit was filed against leading Qatari institutions by U.S. victims of terrorism.  American victims of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist attacks in Israel have discovered that Qatari banks, Masraf al Rayan and Qatar National Bank, in conspiracy with Qatar Charity, a Qatari charity banned in Israel for funding Hamas, secretly laundered money through the U.S. financial system to both of those terrorist organizations.  Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad used the financial support of these Qatari institutions to kill and maim Americans living in and visiting Israel, including Taylor Force.  In 2018, President Trump signed the Taylor Force Act into law to stop U.S. funds from going to the Palestinian Authority if they continued making “martyr payments” to those who attack innocents.  This lawsuit details a related and even more pernicious practice: the illegal misuse of the U.S. financial system to facilitate attacks against Americans, including Taylor Force himself. 

Masraf al Rayan and Qatar National Bank also provided banking services to Hamas leadership operating out of Qatar.  Those private Qatari institutions, while dominated by the royal family who occupy their boards and executive positions, are private and therefore not immune from suit for their terror financing activities.