The FBI took $ 200,000 to crypto from the wallets associated with Hamas, accounts
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Thursday announcement.
According to the FBI, more than $ 1.5 million in crypto – mainly in the form of donations from Hamas supporters around the world – have flowed into seized purses and exchanges of accounts since last October. The purse addresses are said to have been promoted to a chat group that says associated with Hamas, a US and European Union designated terrorist organizations, and donations are subsequently filled with a series of crypto exchanges and transactions.
“These seizures show that this office will seek high and low for every cent of money to fund Hamas, wherever it is located, and in any form of money,” US attorney Edward R. Martin Jr of Columbia’s district said in a statement. “Hamas is responsible for the deaths of many US and Israel citizens, and we will stop without to prevent their campaign of terrorism and murder.”
About $ 90,000 in crypto was obtained from an unspecified number of wallets, and another $ 112,000 was taken from three exchange accounts, according to the release of the FBI, and accounts were registered with Palestinian individuals living in Turkey “and elsewhere.”
The US Treasury Department and other foreign governments have previously allowed Hamas -related networks related to Hamas and crypto transfer facilitators, taking accounts associated with Hamas. In April 2023, Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) gained nearly 200 cryptocurrency accounts tied to Palestinian currency exchanges. According to a report From Blockchain Analytics Firm TRM Labs, the NBCTF obtained the “tens of million” crypto dollars from accounts associated with Hamas over the last few years.
According to Treasury of the US, Hamas uses cryptocurrency to transfer some of its money from at least 2020, to ease the risks of physical carrying cash and to prevent financial monitoring.
