A Republican lawmaker introduced a resolution Wednesday pressing for an investigation into “whether any cryptocurrencies were exchanged between Hamas and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.”
Rep. Tim Burchett’s (R-TN) resolution, which would have to be adopted by both chambers of Congress, would request the Treasury and State departments to look into how Hamas, which has joined other Palestinian terrorist factions in relying on blockchain technology, uses cryptocurrency to boost its operations. The resolution comes days after the Washington Examiner first reported that an Israeli firm called Lionsgate Network is investigating digital wallets held by the UNRWA, the since-fired staffers of which were accused by Israel of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre, prompting the United States and other countries to halt aid to the UNRWA.
“We send the United Nations our taxpayer dollars,” Burchett said in a statement. “We need to be certain that not one penny ends up in the hands of terrorists, whether it’s resources or cash or crypto. This dark money needs to be exposed, and the United States also needs to permanently suspend funding for this agency.”
Since 2021, the Biden administration has delivered at least $730 million in aid to the UNRWA, an agency formed in 1949 that has long earned the ire of foreign policy experts and lawmakers over its ties to Hamas. In 2018, the Trump administration paused aid to the UNRWA, which has been under the spotlight since Oct. 7, particularly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken called allegations that the agency’s staffers participated in the attack “highly credible.”
Hamas has increasingly turned to crypto in recent years, though Lionsgate Network recently helped Israeli authorities claw back $90 million of digital funds connected to the terrorist group. The Tel Aviv-based firm is now investigating crypto donations to the UNRWA’s 501(c)(3) charity in the U.S., the Washington Examiner reported. Still, Hamas has access to some $40 million going in and out of crypto wallets, which store investors’ assets and private information, according to Lionsgate.
“Our company’s vision is to secure crypto transactions and eliminate financial transactions targeting communities around the world,” Lionsgate Network CEO Bezalel Raviv said. “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.”
Burchett’s request for a federal investigation into Hamas’s use of cryptocurrency comes after the U.S. issued sanctions on Oct. 18, 2023, against the Gaza-based Buy Cash, a company that saw its wallets seized by Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing in 2021 “in connection to a Hamas fundraising campaign,” the U.S. Treasury Department said.
Lionsgate has been in conversation with the U.S. State Department on its projects, Raviv said.
The topic of Hamas potentially gaining access to crypto through UNRWA wallets is also on the radar of other lawmakers.
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“Anyone funding Hamas terrorists should not receive a penny of American taxpayer $,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) posted on X last week, along with a link to the Washington Examiner’s recent story on Lionsgate. “We must defund @UNRWA immediately.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) replied to Ernst: “Completely agree.”
