Tel Aviv-based blockchain analysis company Lionsgate Network has helped the Israeli government recover $90 million in Hamas cryptocurrency since the October 7 attack.
The firm is now turning its attention to the digital wallets of the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), which is reeling from revelations that its staff is riddled with Hamas terrorists, and some of them actively participated in the October 7 atrocities.
Scrutiny of UNRWA intensified after the Hamas attack and exploded after Israel revealed employees of the U.N. agency were supportive of the terrorist atrocities, and even participated in them.
Some of that scrutiny concerns UNRWA’s funding and how much of that money ends up in the hands of Palestinian terrorists. The United States, Germany, and the European Union – the three largest funders of UNRWA – plus over a dozen other countries have cut off funding for the agency since the explosive terrorism allegations were made public.
Lionsgate Network plans to look at a UNRWA charity in the United States that partnered with a fundraising platform called Giving Block in late 2021, giving it the ability to accept cryptocurrency donations. Critics say such charities give wealthy donors a way to funnel “dark money” through UNRWA to terrorist organizations while remaining anonymous.
According to Lionsgate CEO Bezalel Raviv, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups have grown very fond of using hard-to-trace cryptocurrency to hide their funds in private, password-protected digital wallets. U.S. sanctions have locked down some of those accounts and Israeli authorities have seized others, but at least one massive Hamas digital wallet is currently active, with about $40 million in funds flowing through it.
“Our company’s vision is to secure crypto transactions and eliminate financial transactions targeting communities around the world. There is a loophole in the financial system, and it’s no longer a very small group of people. It’s like 1.5% of the world’s capital — we’re talking about over $1.5 trillion U.S. dollars,” Raviv told the Washington Examiner on Friday.
UNRWA and U.N. officials, all the way up to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, insist UNRWA is vital to humanitarian operations in Gaza, so cutting off its funding would interfere with “lifesaving work.”
Guterres said on Thursday he was “personally horrified” by the allegations of UNRWA staff engaging in crimes against humanity, and has “met with donors to listen to their concerns and to outline the steps we are taking to address them.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Friday criticized the Biden administration for sending millions of dollars to UNRWA even as suspicions of corruption grew and insisted no further funding for the agency will make it through the Senate.
“As I’ve said before, there is no room for the tired cast of corruption and terrorism in the future of the Palestinian people. As such, Senate Republicans will not accept any legislation that allows taxpayer dollars to fund UNRWA,” McConnell said.
A senior Israeli official told the Times of Israel (TOI) on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government does not want to abolish UNRWA because it could “cause a humanitarian catastrophe that would force Israel to halt its fighting against Hamas.”
The official said Israel nevertheless approves of the decision to freeze UNRWA funding until investigations can be completed, and donors can be assured none of the money will be diverted to terrorism.
That could take some time, as an Israeli intelligence report shared with the U.S. this week found that ten percent of the UNRWA workforce – some 1,200 employees – has ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and almost half of the workforce has at least one relative linked to the terrorist organizations.
“Hamas is obviously going to infiltrate an organization operating in an area under its control. It would be surprising if it wasn’t the case,” a second Israeli official observed.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.