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| Terror Networks |
| Crypto Companies Behind Tether Used Falsified Documents and Shell Companies to Get Bank Accounts |
| 2023-03-04 |
| [WSJ] In late 2018, the companies behind the most widely traded cryptocurrency were struggling to maintain their access to the global banking system. Some of their backers turned to shadowy intermediaries, falsified documents and shell companies to get back in, documents show. One of those intermediaries, a major tether trader in China, was trying to "circumvent the banking system by providing fake sales invoices and contracts for each deposit and withdrawal," Stephen Moore, one of the owners of Tether Holdings Ltd., said in an email viewed by The Wall Street Journal. ... A cache of emails and documents reviewed by the Journal show a long-running effort to stay connected to the financial system. The companies often hid their identities behind other businesses or individuals. Using third parties occasionally caused problems, including hundreds of millions of dollars of seized assets and connections to a designated terrorist organization... Another account on a list of several created for use by Tether and Bitfinex was opened in Turkey in the name of a company called Deniz Royal Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi, according to one of the documents. That account was allegedly used to launder money raised by Hamas’s armed Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, according to an affidavit filed by the Justice Department. The al-Qassam Brigades is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The account was cited in 2020 when the Justice Department disrupted a terror financing operation that the al-Qassam Brigades used to accept cryptocurrency donations and convert them into fiat currency. The operation allegedly used a black-market money transmitting business that used an account at Bitfinex and carried out more than $80 million in transactions with the Deniz Royal account, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter. U.S. authorities seized more than $1 million allegedly tied to the al-Qassam Brigades, with most coming from the money transmitting business that transacted with Deniz Royal, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The case is currently proceeding under seal. Related: Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades: 2023-02-04 Shin Bet says it foiled election day bomb plot by 2 Arab men enlisted by Hamas Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades: 2023-01-27 Gazans fire rockets at south as Israeli jets hit Strip in retaliatory strike Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades: 2022-10-19 Malaysia shows suspected local Mossad agents behind alleged kidnapping of Hamas man |
| Posted by:DooDahMan |
| #1 Gee, am I supposed to be surprised? Can someone loan me a shocked face? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2023-03-04 09:36 |