Washington: The US Department of Justice says it has seized millions of dollars from cryptocurrency accounts, which many terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, used to fund their organizations and commit violent activities. Law enforcement officials told Thursday that the groups have used the accounts to collect donations, including attempts to raise money from the sale of personal protective equipment through fraud for the Coronavirus epidemic.
Officials called it the biggest seizure of the terrorism-linked virtual currency fund. It is also part of a broader goal of the Justice Department to disrupt the financing of extremist organizations, including foreign terrorist groups. The department said that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are prone to illegal transactions as they are difficult to detect. The department’s top national security officer and assistant attorney general John Dimmers said, “This action shows that law enforcement agencies are always one step ahead of them.”
