How stolen cryptocurrency from Delhi businessman landed in Hamas' wallets

On 8 October, Palestinian militant group, Hamas, shocked one and all when it launched a daring attack against Israel through land, air and sea. The action led to the latter declaring an all-out war against the group, vowing justice.In the days since then, Israel has laid a complete siege on the Gaza Strip, and denying Gazans of food, power or supplies. It has also launched one of its fiercest airstrikes in order to eradicate Hamas militants from the conclave. Presently, the combined death toll has been estimated to be over 2,000 but some believe that the actual number is much higher.As this war ensues, causing large-scale destruction and devastation, many are asking where Hamas has got the funding to sustain such an operation. And it seems that cryptocurrency could be the answer, with even an India link to it.From Delhi to HamasA possible crypto link from Delhi to the wallets of Hamas has resurfaced now amid the war. The case dates back to 2021 when the Delhi Police’s Special cell was investigating a case of cryptocurrency theft.The Times of India reported that a west Delhi businessman had approached the police in 2019 alleging a theft of Rs 4 crore in crypto. He had complained that some unknown persons had fraudulently transferred his Bitcoins, Etherum and Bitcoin cash. At the time, he had owned cryptocurrencies (6.2 Bitcoin/9.79 Etherum/2.44 Bitcoin Cash) of blockchain mobile wallet.

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The Special Cell’s Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Ops (IFSO) unit then began a deep dive and were able to link some of the wallets belonging to members of the Al Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas.The authorities revealed that they were able to determine the link after Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, shared information about suspect wallets operated by terrorist groups for funding purposes.After being informed of the link, authorities dug deeper and found that one of the wallets belonged to a Naseer Ibrahim Abdulla in Gaza, while other wallets were connected to Hamas operatives such as Ahmed Marzooq in Giza and Ahmed QH Safi in Ramallah, Palestine.Confirming the same, former Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) KPS Malhotra told Times of India said, “Yes our investigation had led us to several wallets linked to the Al Qassam brigades.”He added that before the stolen crypto landed in the wallets belonging to Hamas members they were routed through various other private wallets.[caption id="attachment_13235102" align="alignnone" width="640"] Hamas is regarded as one of the most sophisticated users of crypto-enabled terror financing. The Palestinian militant group has collected nearly $41 million in digital payments. File image/Reuters[/caption]Hamas’ crypto wealthThe news of this Delhi case resurfaces at a time when Israel has frozen cryptocurrency accounts used to solicit donations for the Palestinian militant group Hamas on social media.“According to suspicions, with the outbreak of the war, Hamas' terrorist organisation initiated a fundraising campaign on social networks, urging the public to deposit cryptocurrencies into their accounts,” the Israeli police said as per a Reuters report.“The Police Cyber Unit and Ministry of Defense immediately took action to locate and freeze these accounts, with the assistance of the Binance crypto exchange, in order to divert the funds to the state treasury.”Since at least 2019, Hamas has been seeking donations in bitcoin to avoid regulation. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Palestinian militant group had collected nearly $41 million in digital payments.According to an investigation by TRMLabs, fundraising efforts by Hamas had seen a rise before Saturday’s attack. For instance, Gaza-based group GazaNow, which is actively supporting Hamas received nearly $800,000 in total and less than $5,000 since Saturday’s attacks.Notably, this isn’t the first time that Israel is flagging the issue of cryptocurrency being used to fund Hamas. In July 2021, Israel uncovered a “web of electronic wallets” used by Hamas to raise funds using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and began clamping down on them.On 31 December of the same year, Israel seized another $830,000 in cryptocurrency from a money-exchange company Hamas runs in the Gaza Strip, called Mutahidoon. According to Israel Hayom newspaper report, the financing network “was exposed in a joint operation involving IDF Intelligence, the National Headquarters on Terrorist Economic Counter-Terrorism at the Defense Ministry, the cybercrimes department of the Israel Police's Lahav 443 Major Crimes Unit, and the State Attorney's Office's Cyber Unit.”Hamas is regarded as one of the most sophisticated users of crypto-enabled terror financing, a former US treasury official told the Wall Street Journal earlier. The official said that Hamas uses crypto solicited through social media to get around the international banking sanctions imposed because it’s been flagged as a terrorist group by the United States and European Union.Apart from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah are also known to collect funds through crypto. The PIJ raised $93 million in crypto between August 2021 and June 2023, revealed a report by Elliptic, a crypto analytics provider.It’s no surprise that groups like Hamas are opting to go the crypto way; the anonymity and untraceability are reasons why crypto is favoured. The United Nations has reported that crypto-assisted attacks have quadrupled in recent years.With inputs from agencies