The cryptocurrency exchange Binance is being sued by families of Israeli captives and Hamas victims for allegedly facilitating transactions linked to the terrorist organisation and other players in the area.
In the Southern District of New York U.S. District Court, the complaint was filed on Wednesday. It was filed “on behalf of United States citizens who were murdered, maimed, taken hostage, or otherwise injured in unspeakable acts of terror perpetrated by Hamas and other terrorist groups in the State of Israel on October 7, 2023.”
The Wall Street Journal revealed in October 2022 that between August 2021 and June 2023, Palestinian Islamic Jihad got $93 million in cryptocurrency, while Hamas received roughly $41 million. The numbers are most likely “overstated,” according to a blog post by Chainalysis.
The plaintiffs, who are also suing Syria and Iran, claim that between 2017 and 2023, the cryptocurrency exchange “provided a clandestine financing tool that Binance deliberately hid from U.S. regulators,” aiding in the funding of terrorist organisations such as Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the U.S., U.K., and other jurisdictions.
After the bombings in which over 1,000 people were killed and over 250 held prisoner, Israeli law enforcement requested that over 100 Binance accounts suspected of having ties to Hamas be frozen.