US Lawmakers Ask DOJ to Consider Criminal Charges Against Binance and Tether
The office of
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) announced
Thursday that the senator from
Wyoming and
U.S. Representative French Hill (R-AR) have sent a letter to
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice (DOJ)
“to swiftly investigate Binance and Tether.” They alleged that the two cryptocurrency platforms have been used to fund Hamas and
“have a history of allowing illegal activity to occur.”
Lummis is a member of the
Senate Banking Committee while Hill is the chair of the House Financial
Services Committee’s Subcommittee on
Digital Assets. Senator Lummis highlighted
“the need for federal investigators to crack down on bad actors in the crypto asset space after reports surfaced that showed Hamas used crypto assets to fund their war in Israel,” the announcement describes.
The letter cites an article published by the
Wall Street Journal on Oct. 10 stating that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah have received crypto funding since
Auguhttps://static.news.bitcoin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/binance-lummis-768x432.jpgst 2021. While acknowledging that the level of funding reported in the article is “likely not accurate,” the lawmakers said:
“We believe it is nonetheless imperative that the Department of Justice hold bad actors accountable if they are shown to facilitate illicit activity.”
This week, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic clarified that there is no evidence to support the assertion that Hamas has received significant volumes of crypto donations. The firm added that the data it provided
“has been misinterpreted.”
