The Federal Research Office of the United States (FBI) confiscated more than $ 200,000 in cryptocurrencies of several wallets and exchange accounts linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, according to a Thursday announcement.
According to the FBI, more than $ 1.5 million in cryptography, largely in the form of donations of Hamas supporters worldwide, has fluid through the seized wallets and exchange accounts since last October. The directions of the wallet were supposedly promoted in a group chat that claimed to be associated with Hamas, a terrorist organization designated by the United States and Europe, and donations were subsequently washed through a series of cryptographic exchanges and transactions.
“These seizures show that this office will look high and bass for each cent money that Hamas will finance, wherever it is and in any form of currency,” said US prosecutor Edward R. Martin Jr., from the Columbia district, in a statement. “Hamas is responsible for the death of many American and Israeli citizens, and we will not stop at anything to stop their horror and murder campaign.”
Approximately $ 90,000 were seized in crypto of an unleasiled number of wallets, and another $ 112,000 were taken from three exchange accounts, according to the FBI statement, and the accounts were recorded in Palestinian people living in Turkey “and in other places.”
The US Department of Treasury and other foreign governments have previously sanctioned the financial and facilitators of cryptographic transfers linked to Hamas, seized in cryptographic accounts linked to Hamas. In April 2023, the National Office of the Ministry of Defense of Israel for Financing against Terror (NBCTF) confiscated almost 200 cryptocurrency accounts linked to the exchanges of Palestinian currencies. According to a report from the Blockchain TRM Labs analysis firm, the NBCTF has seized “tens of millions” of dollars in cryptography of accounts linked to Hamas in recent years.
According to the United States Treasury, Hamas has been using cryptocurrency to move part of its money from at least 2020, to mitigate the risks of physically transporting and evading financial monitoring.
