Israeli authorities have seized 189 Binance accounts since December 2021, allegedly linked to terrorist groups ISIS and Hamas. Reuters reports, citing previously unpublished documents NBCTF.
According to им, 12 January 2023 the agency temporarily seized two Binance accounts linked to “Islamic State” and their contents to “disrupt the group’s activities” and “weaken its ability to advance its aims”.
The NBCTF did not provide the specific amount of seized cryptocurrency or evidence of links to terrorists.
The majority of the remaining accounts belonged to three Palestinian currency-exchange firms that the agency designated as “terrorist organizations” for their alleged involvement in transferring Hamas funds.
In April NBCTF reported on the seizure of more than 500 000 shekels ($137,870) across more than 80 Binance accounts belonging to three Gaza-based companies: Al Mutahadun For Exchange, Dubai Company For Exchange and Al Wefaq Co. For Exchange.
The document states that the accounts were owned by “terrorist organizations” or were used to commit “serious terrorist offences”.
Israeli law allows the defence minister to issue orders to arrest and confiscate assets linked to terrorists, in accordance with a decision by the Israeli Ministry.
In a public response to Reuters, Binance representatives noted that criminals do not register accounts under the names of their criminal enterprises.
“Our team cooperates with law enforcement and uses information available only to them to identify the individuals running the accounts of illegal organisations,” they added.
As reported in last year’s Reuters investigation, Binance repeatedly hid information from regulators, neglected Know Your Customer procedures, and acted against the recommendations of its own compliance department.
Analysts at the agency calculated that since 2017 the exchange processed payments totaling more than $10 billion for criminals and sanctioned companies. Binance representatives then challenged the article, calling the calculations inaccurate, and the descriptions of the compliance controls ‘outdated’.