Crypto worth around 4 crore transferred to Hamas, reveals Delhi Police probe

Bitcoin has started tumbling in May after touching an all time high of nearly $64,000 in April.

In 2019, a Delhi-based businessman had registered a complaint at the Pashchim Vihar police station, alleging that he had been defrauded of his cryptocurrencies, which included Bitcoin, Ethereum and others, worth Rs 30 lakhs, which had subsequently been transferred to unknown accounts.

Now, recent findings by the Delhi Police Cyber cell on this matter reveal the scammers involved had sent the money to accounts of Al-Qassam Brigades, the militant wing of Hamas, a Palestine based Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the European Union.

According to the police, the details of the aggrieved's wallet and other addresses had been uploaded on the Darknet. Notably, the value of these cryptos has significantly risen since then, and are currently valued at around Rs 4.5 crore. This included 6.7 Bitcoins,9.79 Ethereum and 2.44 Bitcoin cash.

As per media reports, among the five suspected and seized wallets where money was transferred, one belonged to a certain Mohammad Naseer Ibrahim Abdulla.

Another wallet where a major tranche of crypto transactions was being diverted to was being operated from Giza, Egypt. One such address was of Ahmad Marzooq, who lives in Giza. Yet another wallet belonged to Ahmad QH Safi, who lives in Ramallah, Palestine. Two Bitcoins were also transferred to an address namely 'Al-QassamBrigades'.

These digital wallets are already under investigation by Israel's Defence Ministry's National Bureau for Counter Financing. The transfer trail also revealed that while the bulk of these cryptos went towards terror financing, a small amount was also directed towards a UK-based gambling site, along with a child pornography site.

KPS Malhotra, DCP (Cyber Cell) said “The cryptocurrencies were routed through various wallets and landed in the suspected wallets. We discovered that one of the wallets, that belongs to the Palestinian origination, has been seized by Israeli authorities for counter-terror financing.”

The matter, which was earlier handled by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Special Cell, Delhi is now being taken up by India with the Palestinian and Israeli authorities. A detailed probe report will also be shared with the Ministry of External Affairs.

This comes in the light of PM Modi urging nations to build a collective consensus around regulating issues around cryptocurrency.

"The kind of technology it is associated with, the decision taken by a single country will be insufficient to deal with its challenges. We have to have a similar mindset," Modi recently stated at the World Economic Forum's virtual Davos Agenda conference.