A nonprofit group in Arizona closely affiliated with Palestinian terrorism received hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-backed COVID-19 relief loans, which were later forgiven during the Biden administration, records show.
Alliance for Global Justice was hit with an IRS complaint in January because it fundraised for a French group called Collectif Palestine Vaincra that partners with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terror organization. The federal government handed this same controversial Arizona group over $254,000 in May 2020 as part of the Paycheck Protection Program and forgave the loan in November 2021, according to public loan data.
MAJOR CORPORATIONS FUNNELED $100,000 TO PALESTINIAN TERROR-LINKED GROUP, DOCUMENTS SHOW
“Never in my life did I think I would see the day that our government and charities gave handouts to known terrorist organizations. There needs to be accountability and transparency in where our tax dollars are going,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told the Washington Examiner, adding that it’s “shocking” and “outrageous” AFGJ received PPP funds.
In May 2020, then-President Donald Trump authorized the program through his signing of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill meant to provide emergency aid to people affected by COVID-19. The Small Business Administration administered PPP, which allocated $953 billion in aid for businesses, nonprofit groups, and other entities.
PPP has also been notoriously ripe with fraud. It has been estimated that around $100 billion was unlawfully siphoned from the federal program. A government watchdog said on Monday that $5.4 billion may have gone to entities with invalid social security numbers.
Alliance for Global Justice is a left-leaning group that was an offshoot of a network linked to the socialist Nicaraguan Sandinista regime, and it fiscally sponsors entities linked to the PFLP, the Washington Examiner reported. CPV, the French group AFGJ was fundraising for, is part of an anti-Israel coalition called Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
AFGJ sponsors Samidoun, which has members who double dip as PFLP members. The PFLP has been responsible for major bombings and plane hijackings through the years.
AFGJ’s fundraiser could mean it provided “material support” to terrorism, according to multiple lawyers that previously spoke with the Washington Examiner. In January, a major Jewish-led organization called on all payment processors to cut ties with AFGJ over its ties to terrorism. Processors like PayPal, Discover, Plaid, and Donorbox have blocked donations to Samidoun for this very reason.
“Any group breaking the law by funding terrorist groups must be prosecuted and shut down,” Morton A. Klein, president of Zionist Organization of America, the oldest pro-Israel American nonprofit group, previously told the Washington Examiner.
Major liberal nonprofit groups, as well as corporations and wealthy donors, have steered over $10 million to AFGJ since 2019. This includes giving from the Tides Center and the Tides Foundation, sister groups founded by Democratic activist Drummond Pike that earmarked the grants for other AFGJ projects, tax forms show.
Corporations that have bankrolled AFGJ include Pepsi, Lyft, IAC Holdings, Salesforce, and CBS Interactive US, which dissolved and is now under Paramount. One donor to AFGJ has also been former Enron executive John Arnold, a Texas billionaire who runs a limited liability corporation called Arnold Ventures.
The over $254,000 that AFGJ received from the government helped support 29 jobs at the Arizona group, according to loan data. It is unclear whether this money went toward any of its fiscally sponsored projects, which, in addition to having PFLP links, have aligned with other controversial movements.
AFGJ at one point sponsored Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of groups supporting Black Lives Matter and its global foundation, which is facing scrutiny amid its leaders being accused of stealing $10 million from the charity’s donors.
House Republicans have vowed to investigate PPP while in the majority, particularly under House Oversight and Accountability Committee. More than 1,000 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty over their role in defrauding the government system, and over 600 have also been charged, according to the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog.
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“Unfortunately, Democrats conducted little oversight of the over $2 trillion spent under the CARES Act,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said Wednesday in a hearing on waste and COVID-19 programs. “They did the exact opposite. They spent another $2 trillion but this time with absolutely no protections or guardrails to prevent waste. And worse, they spent this money when there was no sign that it was needed. This out-of-control spending led to 40-year high inflation, kept people out of work longer, and harmed the economy.”
The Small Business Administration declined a request for comment.
