Reality Check: Bitcoin Plays A Bit Role In Terror Financing
Is bitcoin really the preferred currency of terrorists? You might think so from reading some of the mainstream media headlines. But a recent intergovernmental study on terrorist financing paints a very different picture. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a Paris-based, intergovernmental body that develops policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of weapons of mass destruction, recently released a report called Emerging Terrorist Financing Risks. There is a small section in the report about virtual currency as a tool....
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Evidence suggests crypto’s role in terrorism remains relatively minor: “It has not yet become a primary means of terror financing.” We’re living today “amidst an explosion of risk related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and data privacy,” said United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in February — and she specifically cited cryptocurrencies as a “tool to finance terrorism.”Yellen appeared to be flagging an important new turn in the war against terror, and it begged some questions: Is crypto in the hands of terrorists a real, present danger to governments and society?....
What seems more likely, however, is how organizations like IS get their funding through money laundering, a scheme that has been plaguing traditional finance for quite some time. The topic of the involvement of Bitcoin in terrorism funding has been kicked around a few times in the past, but it looks like there is no end in sight. Amit Kumar, a US-based terror expert, feels it is vital to disrupting terrorism financing, references to Bitcoin in this context as playing a role that further warrants investigation. It is not the first time someone mentions Bitcoin and terrorism funding in the....
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), co-founder of Binance, is once again in the spotlight as a new lawsuit accuses him and the cryptocurrency exchange of enabling millions of dollars in financial transactions for Hamas and other designated terrorist organizations. Binance Accused Of Laundering $1 Billion For Terror Groups The legal action, filed in North Dakota federal court, […]
Cash and hawala remain the “predominant methods of terror financing,” according to a UN official, however, "advanced" terror organizations are turning to cryptocurrencies. Terrorist groups who have been excluded from the “formal financial system” have turned to crypto to fund their heinous activities, according to Svetlana Martynova, the Countering Financing of Terrorism Coordinator at the United Nations (UN). The UN official made the comments during a speech at a “Special Meeting” run by the UN’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in New Delhi and Mumbai on Oct. 28-29 — which was focused....
Israeli authorities have identified a cluster of crypto addresses they say moved about $1.5 billion in Tether (USDT) that is connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Related Reading: UAE Steps Up Global War On Crypto Crime – Details According to reports, the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) of Israel flagged 187 wallet […]