Israel seizes cryptocurrencies from Hamas terrorists

Israeli police announced on Tuesday (10) that they have succeeded in freezing Hamas’s cryptocurrencies, assets collected by the terrorist group through donations on social media.

According to local media, the operation was carried out by the cyber unit Lahav 433 in cooperation with the National Headquarters for Economic Warfare Against Terrorism (MTL) of the Ministry of Defense, the Shin Bet and other intelligence services in the country.

At the same time, the Israel Police cyber unit also froze a Hamas account at the Barclays bank. The bill was distributed by terrorists as a way to receive donations.

Binance helps seize funds, but ultimately ends up on the receiving end

With the recent onset of conflict, Hamas began a massive campaign on digital platforms, asking for donations in cryptocurrencies. The cyber unit, working with MTL, acted quickly to identify and freeze such accounts.

To achieve this, she counted on the cooperation of Binance, which helped forward the money to the authorities. However, the company was questioned for a range of practices.

In March this year, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance, its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, and Samuel Lim, the company’s former Chief Compliance Officer.

At the time, US regulators alleged that Binance had violated eight sections of the Securities Act, including laws requiring regulatory approval “intended to prevent and detect money laundering and terrorist financing.”

According to Israeli website calcalist.co.il, documents suggest Binance was aware of this “Hamas transactions” on its platform and Samuel Lin, the company’s head of compliance, tried to minimize the problem by claiming that terrorists generally move “small amounts”.

Meanwhile, a company employee even made a controversial comment, stating that the amount was $600 “I could barely afford an AK47”.

“Defendants’ own emails and chats reflect that Binance’s compliance efforts were a sham and that Binance consciously – repeatedly – ​​chose to profit rather than follow the law.”said Gretchen Lowe, deputy director and chief counsel for the CFTC Division of Enforcement.

Later, Binance’s CEO said the CFTC lawsuit seemed like it “contain an incomplete representation of the facts” and disputed “the characterization of many of the issues raised in the complaint.”

Zhao also stated that Binance was the first non-US exchange to implement a mandatory KYC program, noting that its systems have multiple means of executing blocks, including IP, banks and others.

Finally, the Israel Police and the Israeli Army have reinforced their joint commitment to combating terrorist financing by stating that they will continue to protect strategic financial assets and combat sources of financing for terrorist organizations.

Source: Live Coins

follow:
\