Israel Seizes Millions in Crypto From the Iranian Military

According to a press release to newsrooms, the Israeli government, through the help of Chainalysis, has confiscated millions in crypto from accounts linked to the Iranian army and Hezbollah, a militant group in Lebanon.

The the crypto seize by the agency from Hezbollah is unprecedented and forms a basis for further scrutiny of how militant groups are financed in the Middle East.

What led to the seizure of the crypto wallets

On Tuesday, news spread that crypto worth millions had been seized from the accounts that had received or sent money, alleging that they were financing schemes for a powerful arm of the military in Iran and their backed militant groups in Lebanon called Hezbollah.

This seizure followed an order from the Israel defense minister Yoav Gallant who approved it, as reported by the government Communique. The effort to seize the funds involved the Israel police, Israel military intelligence office, and the Mossad spy agency, which coordinated well to ensure success.

In an interview, Gallant said:

“I issued an order that enabled the confiscation of said funds, as well as their transfer to the State of Israel. In doing so, we have effectively cut off the flow of terror funds via this channel.”

Mr. Gallant described the operation as extensive since it targeted two organizations sworn to Israel’s destruction: Quds Force and Hezbollah. The two militant groups have been labeled terrorist groups by the U.S. government, which locks them out of global financing.

The Israeli government had previously seized funds from a paramilitary group of Gaza’s Hamas to control terrorist activities through financial support. Still, it was nowhere near the magnitude of the recent seizure.

Gallant stated:

“This is the first incident of this magnitude,” Gallant said, noting that the effort took place earlier this week. “We have effectively cut off the flow of terror funds via this channel.”

According to Chainalysis, the seized funds were from more than 40 addresses, and every account was in USDT on the Tron network. The report showed that the funds were moving first from different facilitators to the hawala services and other brokers like OTC, including many Hezbollah-controlled exchange agencies, which made it suspicious for heinous processes.

While speaking at the crypto conference of the national bureau for counter-terror financing in Israel’s Ministry of Defence, the minister indicated:

“Hezbollah and the Quds Force rely on virtual currency to finance militant activities.”

He further indicated:

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are favored for illicit transactions because they are perceived as hard to trace.

The minister explained that anyone could create an account and receive funds from everywhere without providing a name or address. On the same note, he lamented that:

“As you can see, this time too, there is a clear line behind the terror [financing] moves that originate in Iran. Iran is the financier, trainer, and spreader of terrorism against Israel and many countries around the world, both directly and through its proxies at the borders”

The seizure, as described, is a warning shot of too many heinous activities in the cryptocurrency world since technology is improving quickly to identify those involved in blockchain transactions. It serves as a wake-up call to other agencies involved in elicit financial transfers through cryptocurrencies.