Argentina Issues Administrative Freeze Measures on Cryptocurrency Wallets Suspected of Financing Terrorism
Argentina is now tackling the usage of cryptocurrency funds for financing terrorism. The Financial Information Unit (UIF), Argentina’s money laundering and anti-terrorism watchdog, has detected the use of national cryptocurrency exchanges that could potentially be linked to fund Hay’et Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a Syrian terrorist group with ties to Al Qaeda.
The investigations indicate that two individuals—a Russian national residing in Argentina and another foreign national identified by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Israeli National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF)—could be collaborating with this group.
Hay’et Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) recently had its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) revoked by the U.S. Department of State; nonetheless, the group is still recognized as a terrorist organization by international anti-terrorism groups.
While there is no indication that these funds were going to be used to commit terrorist acts in Argentina, the country is mandated by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to act in cases when there is a risk of international terrorism financing.
The measure was proposed by the UIF, which received a tip from two sources, one local and one international, and notified a federal judge, who validated the administrative freeze of the crypto funds.
Local sources linked to the actions indicated that “as a first step, it was decided to freeze all wallets and fund movements that he had made or attempted to make, and from now on, other measures will be intensified with the intervention of the Justice system.”
These same sources also revealed that in the chain of transactions of these funds, there are addresses that could potentially have ties to other illegal organizations, without offering additional details on the subject.
