U.S. Department of Justice Filed A Forfeiture Complaint Against 155 Allegedly Al Qaeda-Affiliated Crypto Addresses

The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and Internal Revenue Service cyber-crimes unit filed a complaint for forfeiture on Thursday, claiming that Al Qaeda terrorist organizations were operating money laundering through Telegram channels and soliciting for Bitcoin donations to fund terrorism. Investigators used Chainalysis and Excygent to track related Bitcoin transactions.

According to the document, the Al-Qaeda Bitcoin Terror Finance Campaign started in April 2019, functioning on a now-defunct Telegram group. 

One of the campaigns raised a total of 15.2 BTC from February 2019 to February 2020 and then sent 9.1 BTC to a virtual currency exchange. The funds received were once again sent to various online gift card exchanges, a common method of money laundering known to law enforcement. 

Confirmed terrorist organizations linked to al-Qaeda include Al-Nusrah Front (ANF) and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The document alleges that, based on messages posted on telegram, these online donation campaigns are affiliated with mentioned organizations. For example, a campaign named “Leave an Impact Before Departure”, which received 14.58 BTC donations within the period, posted images regarding the prices of military equipment needed to support fighters inside of Syria.

“The Defendant Properties are subject to forfeiture to the United States … as assets of a foreign terrorist organization engaged in planning or perpetrating any federal crime of terrorism,” the complaint said.

By Lily Yang

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