On February 3, 2022, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated World Human Care, a “charitable organization” that has been used as a front to raise funds to support violent extremists in Syria by the Indonesia-based terrorist group Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI). The Treasury Department reports that the MMI, which was formed in 2000 and has claimed responsibility for an attack at a book launch for Canadian author Irshad Manji, was designated by the State Department in 2017 as a terrorist organization for committing acts of terrorism that threaten the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States. OFAC designated World Human Care under Executive Order 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist and those who provide support to terrorist or acts of terrorism, for providing material assistance to the MMI, an entity whose interests in property are blocked under EO 13224.
According to the Treasury Department, World Human Care has engaged in some legitimate humanitarian activities but its main objective was to raise funds for MMI sympathizers in Syria, as evidenced by the organization’s 2016 transfer of funds to Syria that was used to support both humanitarian needs and weapons/fighters in Syria. World Human Care also allegedly sent funds and equipment to a Southeast Asian terrorist fighter in Syria on one occasion and, in a solicitation for donations on its website, World Human Care requested donors to send funds to a bank account controlled by an MMI official.
As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of today’s designees within the United States or within the possession or control of a US person are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving the designated persons. In addition, entities owned fifty percent or more by one or more designated persons are also blocked.
Department of Treasury Press Release