In what a federal prosecutor called “historical and unprecedented” the Feds announced that they have conducted the “largest-ever seizure of cryptocurrency” connected to terrorism, having seized millions of dollars from 300 cryptocurrency accounts, four websites, and four Facebook pages. An NBC News article has more:
“With approval from a judge, federal law enforcement seized control of the al-Qassam Brigades’ site for a time, diverting donations from a site intended to fund terrorism and sending them instead to Bitcoin accounts controlled by the U.S. government.
A second campaign involved a Syria-based group that explicitly sought to accept Bitcoin donations to fund terrorists in the region.
Federal law enforcement agencies, and in particular the IRS, partnered with the digital forensics company Chainalysis to conduct blockchain analysis as a way to specifically identify how and where various bitcoins moved around.
According to Chainalysis, an Idlib, Syria-based entity known as the ‘BitcoinTransfer Office,’ serves as the central hub for receiving such Bitcoin-based donations to fund militant activity, particularly those affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
‘However, BitcoinTransfer remains active as a service,’ the company wrote in a Thursday blog post. ‘Given its facilitation of extensive terrorism financing activity, it’s crucial that cryptocurrency businesses examine past transactions for exposure to BitcoinTransfer and monitor transactions to address any possible future exposure.’
The third case links Murat Cakar, another Turkish national who the government described as an ‘ISIS facilitator who is responsible for managing select ISIS hacking operations,’ to a COVID-19 fraud.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group
