Bank Co-Owned by Iran and Qatar Financing D.C. ‘CAIR Plaza,’ Records Show
A Middle East Forum investigation found that a bank backed by Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia disbursed $7.7 million for a real estate project intended to support CAIR
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is the intended beneficiary of a $30 million real estate project in Washington, D.C. backed in part by financing from the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB), a multilateral bank whose top shareholders include the governments of Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, according to a Middle East Forum investigation published on July 20, 2026.
The bank’s own reports document $7.7 million already disbursed to construct “CAIR Plaza,” a 49-unit apartment building with retail space at 201 K Street NE, a few blocks from Union Station and the U.S. Capitol. The project is designed to generate decades of rental income for CAIR, an organization the FBI suspended formal contacts with in 2009, the United Arab Emirates designated as a terrorist entity in 2014, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated as a foreign terrorist organization and transnational criminal organization in November 2025. CAIR’s own website states the group “does not receive funding from foreign organizations or governments.”
The Bank Behind the Building
The ISDB approved the CAIR Plaza project in 2013, committing $11 million in sharia-compliant financing alongside $5 million from its Awqaf Properties Investment Fund — together, $16 million toward the project’s estimated $30 million total cost. According to the bank’s stated objective, the project would “provide income for the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to support its activities.”
Saudi Arabia holds the largest share of ISDB capital at 23.51%, followed by Iran at 8.25% — making the U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism the bank’s second-largest shareholder. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies describes ISDB as a bank whose leadership has “purportedly engaged in corruption, covered up money laundering operations, assisted Iran and its proxy Hezbollah to avoid U.S. sanctions, and supported Islamist terrorist organizations.”
A 2021 lawsuit further alleged the ISDB manages the Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Funds, established by Arab governments to finance the Palestinian intifada and pay families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
The Corporate Structure
ISDB reports list the Washington Trust Foundation as the CAIR Plaza beneficiary — a 501(c) entity, legally distinct from CAIR Foundation, whose stated purpose is to “support the charitable purpose of CAIR Foundation.” Property records show the land is owned by the Greater Washington LLC of Delaware. CAIR founder Nihad Awad has served as an official of the LLC, signing a 2005 property lease agreement as top official of both CAIR and Greater Washington LLC. The Washington Trust Foundation identifies Greater Washington LLC as a related legal entity on its own tax filings.
The building firm Banneker Ventures lists the project as an $18.5 million endeavor and has previously partnered with CAIR to sponsor events featuring D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
The Disclosure Gap
The Washington Trust Foundation’s most recent Form 990 values a “CONST PROJECT 2ANDK CAIR” asset at more than $17 million — up from $2 million in 2021 — and lists nearly $9 million in liabilities for the “2ND AND K PROJECT.” The filings do not name the source of those funds.
The ISDB’s financing takes the form of an istisna, a sharia financing structure in which the lender typically contracts directly with the contractor building the asset, with repayment beginning once construction is complete. Under current 501(c) rules, foreign loans and mortgages do not appear to carry a meaningful public disclosure requirement for the recipient nonprofit. The Washington Trust Foundation has not reported any repayments to date, despite the ISDB’s first $1.7 million disbursement occurring in 2019.
This is not the first CAIR-ISDB transaction. In 1999, the ISDB reportedly financed CAIR’s headquarters with $250,000. In 2008, the bank approved a $100,000 grant to CAIR’s “Leadership Training Center” — during a meeting of ISDB leadership held in Tehran.
CAIR has separately stated that it “is not and has never been an affiliate, offshoot, chapter, or agent of any foreign movement, organization, political party or government.”
A Broader U.S. Footprint
The MEF investigation documents that ISDB has spent $13.1 million supporting 44 K-12 schools in America, including Brighter Horizons Academy in North Texas — which an earlier MEF investigation found was established and staffed by Hamas-aligned operatives.
The bank’s largest U.S. project is a $90 million residential tower in New York City for the Turken Foundation, an organization founded and managed by members of Turkish President Erdoğan’s family. In Texas, ISDB has pledged $7 million to a residential project of the Islamic Center of Irving.
Congressional Calls for Action
CAIR — which was not charged in the case — was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation prosecution, described at the time as the largest terrorism-financing trial in U.S. history; five Holy Land Foundation officials were convicted at the 2008 retrial. In April, Representative Chip Roy introduced H.R. 8236, the Designating Hamas Affiliates in America Act of 2026, which would direct the Treasury Department to designate CAIR as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist; the bill remains in committee.
The Department of Health and Human Services opened an investigation in June 2026 into CAIR’s alleged ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and its use of federal grants; no findings had been announced as of publication.
“For years CAIR told Americans it takes no foreign money. The Islamic Development Bank’s own reports prove otherwise,” MEF Executive Director Gregg Roman said in announcing the findings. “A bank part-owned by the leading state sponsor of terrorism is building a permanent revenue stream for an Islamist group blocks from the United States Capitol.”
The Forum is calling on Congress to open an investigation and on the Treasury Department and IRS to close the disclosure loophole by requiring nonprofits to publicly report foreign loans and sharia financing instruments on Form 990.