The United States Department of Justice announced the dismantling of an alleged plot by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for fundraising and recruiting more members.
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According to the announcement, an amount exceeding US$ 500,000 in cryptocurrencies allegedly directed to the Palestinian militia was seized.
“More than $560,000 (about $524,076,000) in cryptocurrency donations intended for Hamas have been seized and their fundraising and recruitment communication platforms and websites have been dismantled”, the department stated.
It was also maintained that Hamas controlled the network “on behalf of its military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades”.
In line with the operation, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, sent a message to the extremist organization.
“We will stop fundraising for terrorism. Your networks are not secure, your cryptocurrencies are vulnerable, and we will not stop until your ability to wage wars is defeated,” Pirro emphasized.
Regarding the seizure, the Deputy Attorney General for National Security, John Eisenberg, stated that “these seizures deprive Hamas of the resources it depends on to recruit and radicalize individuals online and finance barbaric attacks like the one on October 7, 2023.”
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Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of the Cyber Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Brett Leatherman, highlighted that “Hamas relied on cryptocurrencies and online platforms to solicit funds from donors worldwide and move that money outside the formal financial system.”
Citing court documents, the Department of Justice explained about the plot’s mechanism that “a chat group claiming to have ties to Hamas on an encrypted communications platform directed its followers to a fundraising website and provided donors with a rotating set of cryptocurrency donation addresses.”
Thus, “information from multiple human sources” was used that U.S. authorities, the statement reads, have managed to “identify, track, and seize” the mentioned cryptocurrency amount “intended to support the Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas”.
On the other hand, the department announced that, “through related sources and methods, the FBI also obtained information about thousands of people who contacted Hamas online to donate or attempt to donate to the terrorist organization using cryptocurrencies and other traditional means.”
“Such information will be used in future FBI counterterrorism operations,” the document states.
