Sep 85 min read

ACTION ALERT: PLEASE DEMAND THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION PROSECUTE IRAN-FUNDED U.S. PROTEST ORGANIZERS

We support Congressman Banks and his colleagues who penned a letter in August asking administration officials to name the specific U.S.-based protest groups that received funding from Iran and to enforce United States law by prosecuting those responsible.

STOP IRAN NOW - September 2024

Pictured: Anti-Trump activists burn U.S. flags at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House on July 4 in Washington, D.C. ALEX WONG/GETTY.

BACKGROUND:

IN August Congressman Jim Banks led 22 of his House colleagues in a bipartisan letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding Director Haines’ July 9th statement confirming that the Iranian regime, a state sponsor of terrorism (SSOT), provided financial support to pro-Palestinian protests in the United States.

The letter asks the administration officials to name the specific U.S.-based protest groups that received funding from Iran and to enforce United States law by prosecuting those responsible.

Said Congressman Banks: “The Biden administration admitted that some of the same groups behind the pro-Hamas protestors who burned American flags outside the U.S. Capitol last week also took money from Iran. These organizations likely violated U.S. sanctions law and must be prosecuted. I am calling on the Biden administration to come clean and tell us which of these anti-American groups took illegal donations from the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran.”

The full text of Congressman Banks' Letter is below

August 1, 2024

Janet Yellen

Secretary of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20220

Merrick Garland

Attorney General

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Avril Haines

Director of National Intelligence

1500 Tysons McLean Dr.

McLean, VA 22102

Dear Secretary Yellen, Attorney General Garland, and Director Haines,

We write today regarding recent revelations that certain anti-Israel organizations in the

United States have received funding from the Iranian regime, which may constitute multiple

violations of U.S. law and regulations.

As such, we urge the Department of the Treasury to investigate and impose monetary penalties on any U.S. persons involved in these transactions and to sanction those individuals and entities that provided this funding. We also call on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to criminally prosecute and pursue civil forfeiture actions againstany individual or entity that violates the law by receiving funding from the Iranian regime.

Lastly, we also urge the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and Treasury to

make public all available information, without compromising sources and methods, regarding

Iran’s funding of these pro-Hamas organizations so that the American people can see who thesegroups truly are.

Director Haines’ statement earlier this month confirming that the Iranian regime, a state

sponsor of terrorism (SSOT), provided financial support to pro-Palestinian protests in the United States suggests that these groups may be in violation of U.S. law. It is illegal for any bank or individual to conduct financial transactions with SSOTs. Any U.S. person that engages in a financial transaction with an SSOT despite “knowing or having reasonable cause to know” that a country is an SSOT faces up to ten years in prison.

Since multiple Iranian government entities have also been sanctioned for their terrorist

activities, any transaction in which these entities sent funding to U.S. groups likely ran afoul of

one or several of these sanctions.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), a designation which allows U.S. banks to block its assets andprosecute or impose civil penalties on any U.S. person who provides material support other FTOs like it. Similarly, multiple Iranian entities, like the Central Bank of Iran, are Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT), which enables the U.S. to target terrorist financiers who access the U.S. financial system. Under the DOJ’s enforcement of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, any person who “willfully” provides or conspires to provide material support to an SDGT can face up to 20 years in prison and will likely be required to forfeit “tainted” property tied to that transaction.

Finally, Treasury retains civil enforcement authority that applies on a strict liability basis, empowering Treasury to impose civil penalties on entities engaged in prohibited conduct, even if there is no evidence of negligence or intent.

Given that the aforementioned funding almost certainly violates the U.S. anti-terrorism

statutes noted above, we call on you to aggressively prosecute any violations by U.S. individuals and entities of these laws, to impose civil penalties on any violators, and to sanction thoseentities which provided this funding or facilitated these transactions.

Additionally, we are concerned by ODNI’s claim that “Americans who are being targeted

by this Iranian campaign may not be aware that they are interacting with or receiving support

from a foreign government.

” If U.S. organizations are receiving funding from SSOTs, the United

States government has a duty to inform the public and to warn all protestors involved with these groups that they are acting at the behest of a terrorist state. The American public should not beleft in the dark, and it is critical that neither ODNI nor Treasury withhold information that wouldreveal the depth of this Iranian influence operation.

With these concerns in mind, we request that your departments and offices provide me

with answers to the following questions by no later than August 22, 2024:

1. Which specific individuals and entities have received financial assistance, directly or

indirectly, from the Government of Iran or any entities that are agents or affiliates of the

Iranian regime?

2. Have any of these groups been notified of the Iranian origin of their funding?

a. If so, which organizations have been notified?

b. What due diligence measures do the individuals or entities that have received this

funding have in place to guard against such illicit actors?

c. Have any such organizations volunteered to give up this funding or made any

indication that they would reject such funding in the future?

3. What is the estimated total amount of financial support provided by Iran to these groups,

and how long has this financial support been occurring?

4. Does ODNI or the FBI have evidence to suggest that any of these anti-Israel groups knew

or should have known that they were receiving support from an SSOT or FTO?

a. Has the Treasury Department notified any financial institutions that their

institutions were used to process illicit payments?

b. Were any transactions identified and blocked by Treasury?

5. Has the Treasury Department received any suspicious activity reports (SARs) from banks

about these transactions? If so, please transmit copies of any SARs to the Congress.

6. Does the DOJ consider these groups’ receipt of Iranian funding to be violations of U.S.

law? Will the Treasury Department consider the receipt of Iranian funding “egregious”

violations of prohibited conduct and impose severe monetary penalties under a strict

liability standard to individuals or entities that received such funding?

7. Will ODNI and the Treasury commit to make public more information regarding this

Iranian funding of U.S. protest groups?

8. What actions are being taken to prevent further efforts by SSOTs and FTOs to fund U.S.

individuals and entities associated with anti-Israel protest movements?

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to your responses.

Sincerely,

__________________ __________________

Jim Banks Mike Waltz