The United States Justice Department has seized about $200K in digital assets from addresses linked to terrorism financing. According to reports, the funds were meant to benefit the Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Hamas). The alleged group chat presented efforts of the group to recoup funds through the crypto addresses via direct donations, a scheme that has led to many fund freezes in the past.
The latest move was investigated by the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office and the FBI Counterterrorism Division and Cyber Division. The new campaign against terrorism falls directly under the direction of the new United States Attorney General, Pam Bondi. The investigation also detailed witness accounts from many confidential human sources.
According to records, the wallet linked to the Hamas group has seen about $1.5 million enter and exit the wallet since October 2024. “Hamas raised and laundered more than a million dollars to support its terrorist operation, but through our investigation, the FBI traced and seized these funds,” said Assistant Director David J. Scott of the FBI Counterterrorism Division.
“Disrupting funding mechanisms and seizing cryptocurrency from Hamas is one of the FBI’s many tools that we use in the fight against terrorism. The FBI will work with our partners to dismantle this terrorist group and protect the American people from their violent and horrific acts,” he said. The funds seized from the group are small in the amount they recoup in fiat funding but shows that the United States authorities are working to disrupt all their fundraising channels.
United States authorities bust terrorism funding channels
According to reports, the terrorism financing moves spread across several encrypted platforms. The fundraising relied on a group of 17 wallets, where their supporters could donate funds. Some of these messages were spread across telegram, with the wallet addresses majorly. The deposits were then laundered through several crypto exchanges and mixing transactions as well as swaps through OTC brokers. The terrorist group has used this method to launder about $1 million.
Wallets seized by authorities contrian about $89,000 in digital assets, with three additional wallets holding $111,500. The accounts were tied to palestinian nationals who reside in Turkey and other countries. Elliptic had previously identified wallets linked to the group showing about $7 million in turnover. In the past few years, these types of fundraising have been tracked by authorities. The channel has helped authorities track both the funds involved and the people tied to the funds.
The addresses have not been shown and tracked publicly because of the sensitive nature of the investigations tied to them. The funds were sent to Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and TRON wallets. Other donations were made in DOGE. One address belonging to one of the fundraisers contains about $49 in BTC. The address has not been on the move for a while and has only been used for limited activities.
So far, there have been times that investigations have been unable to help regulators intercept the funds, which sometimes move too fast to be intercepted. Additionally, not all platforms agree to help regulators freeze funds that are likely going to these terrorists. Over the last few months, the Telegram has moved to ban these groups carrying out terrorism financing fundraising activities. While most of these methods are used for small donations, the platform has done a core job of disrupting their financing schemes.