Qatargate two: Jordanian documents detail transfer of millions to Israeli officials

By OHAD MERLIN

JULY 20, 2024 20:30

Updated: JULY 20, 2024 22:29

Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons) — Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Documents from Amman reveal that in 2012, Jordanian authorities may have blocked a $10 million check written by a US firm tied to PM Netanyahu for a Turkish-based straw company related to Hamas.

A new set of documents soon to be exposed by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) sheds more light on the affair dubbed Qatargate, which involves a series of documents showcasing Qatari authorities allegedly instructing the transfer of tens of millions of dollars to Israeli officials such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former foreign minister and current head of the Yisrael Beiteynu party, Avigdor Liberman.

The new documents, dating back to 2012 and reviewed exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, revolve around an internal report by the Jordanian Anti Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Unit regarding an attempt made to deposit a $10 million check from a company named Seadrift Coke to an account held by a Turkish firm titled: The Import and Export company.

According to the report, this was a straw company that belonged to another firm entitled Uzmanlar, which, per the analysis, allegedly had “connections to armed groups” who used it to facilitate money laundering.

The Jordanian authorities who wrote the report alleged that the $10 million check written under Seadrift Coke belonged, in fact, to Netanyahu, who had seemingly held large shares in the Texas-based firm through his cousin, Nathan Milikowsky. Noteworthily, the Seadrift affair was mentioned in a 2019 expose by The Times of Israel, though according to the article, Netanyahu had reportedly sold his shares back in 2010.

Notably, this check rejection also appears on a document issued by Jordan National Bank.

Jordan's National Bank notifying about the rejection of the $10 million check. (credit: MEMRI)

Further, an earlier transfer of $50 million by Qatar to Netanyahu in cash, “followed by the deposit of a check for $10 million made out by the Seadrift company, in which Netanyahu holds many shares, indicates that Netanyahu is the original owner of the check and that the sum belongs to him,” the report continued.

As for Uzmanlar, the company was mentioned in a 2022 seizure order issued by the Israeli Defense Ministry as an organization affiliated with Hamas or operating on its behalf.

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Uzmanlar was also mentioned in 2024 European Union regulations and restrictions against Hamas and PIJ actions, by which it was explicitly referred to as being “part of Hamas’s international financing network.”

Other paperwork originating in Jordan showcased another similar overview by Jordanian authorities accusing Netanyahu of allegedly collaborating with Qatari bureaucrats to facilitate the transfer of funds to Gaza for the sake of “political ends” through an organization named World Vision that, per the review, funded Hamas through eight bank accounts, providing a source for money laundering.

In this context, in 2016, Israeli authorities arrested a senior employee of World Vision in Gaza named Mohammad Al-Halabi, accusing him of establishing a systematic mechanism and a series of fictitious humanitarian projects through which he presumably funneled some $50 million to the terrorist group in order to finance it.

‘No evidence that the money was in fact transferred or received’

These Jordanian allegations complement the findings brought up in the Post’s interview with MEMRI founder and president Yigal Carmon from July 2, in which he elaborated on his research regarding a series of previously leaked documents attributed to high-ranking Qatari officials from 2012 and 2018, featuring alleged instructions to transfer tens of millions of dollars to Netanyahu and Liberman, who were running together under one united party in the 2012 elections.

Though the older documents did not disclose whether the funds ended up being transferred, Carmon pointed out validating circumstantial evidence in the form of the questionable involvement of Qatar in Gazan affairs which assumedly received Israel’s formal blessing, evident by the cash, rather than the bank, transactions, as well as in the irregular personal behavior of the individuals involved on the Israeli side of matters.

Distinctly, as opposed to the older leaked documents published by Carmon, which originated in the Raven Project and were viewed as part of a “leak war” between the Qataris and the Emiratis, the newly published documents are mainly of Jordanian origin, which may indicate a cross-referencing of events from different, unrelated sources.

Other documents published by MEMRI last week revolved around a bank transfer of $50 million from an account dubbed the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development to the account of the World Vision organization in Jordan, to which the local Anti Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Unit referred to as “suspicious,” reporting the seizure of the monetary resources and claiming that the grounds for this suspicion were based on “joint intelligence findings regarding the movement of funds belonging to the World Vision organization, suspected of acting to fund suspicious organizations, including Hamas, in cooperation with Binyamin Netanyahu, via other financial accounts.”

The internal report reform the anti money laundering and terrorist financing unit. (credit: MEMRI)

Carmon commented on this saying, “These documents are not from the same source that served as the basis for our report from December 2023, but originate from a different, Jordanian source.

“This material serves as reinforcement of the accumulating alleged evidence and only strengthens the need to look into this issue. Before opening a legal investigation, there is a legal practice to conduct a preexamination as to whether there is a need to open such an investigation, and as far as I know, this preliminary process has not taken place in Israel thus far.”

A World Vision spokesperson said: “We are aware of previous reports in your publication, and others, and can say with certainty that the few details outlined, including address and banking information, do not match with facts of our operations in 2012. We were never contacted by the Jordanian authorities about such an alleged incident. We do not believe the reported attempted transfer was ever made to our organization.”

A spokesperson for the Likud party responded to the issue by stating, “These are false and illusory accusations and [serve as] false propaganda against the State of Israel in the midst of a war.”