n an elaborate sting operation, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it had dismantled hundreds of cybercurrency accounts operated by Hamas, al-Qaeda and ISIS to fundraise for their violent actions.
The impressive operation even involved covertly taking over a Hamas Bitcoin account and diverting the funds to the U.S. government.
In the end, the U.S. seized more than a million dollars, 300 cryptocurrency accounts, four websites and four Facebook pages related to the terror fundraising campaigns.
In making the announcement, U.S. Attorney General William Barr noted the coordinated and innovative efforts of numerous branches of the government involved in the effort. Barr specifically thanked investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as prosecutors from the D.C. United States Attorney’s Office and National Security Division.
Hamas
The government’s first operation was against Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. Beginning in 2019, the al-Qassam Brigades posted calls on their social media page for Bitcoin donations. The campaign was later moved to its websites — alqassam.net, alqassam.ps and qassam.ps.
On these sites, Hamas not only boasted that the donations would be for violent causes, they said the money would be untraceable. The websites offered video instructions on how to anonymously make donations, in part by using unique Bitcoin addresses generated for each individual donor.
However, the U.S. government managed to track and eventually seize 150 cryptocurrency accounts used by Hamas to launder the money. Search warrants have been issued to U.S.-based individuals who donated to these accounts.
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Originally Posted by Witch Doctor
