U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) on Wednesday sought to correct the record after erroneous media reports on the use of cryptocurrency terror financing during a House Financial Services Committee hearing with Treasury Department officials from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2023 that between August 2021 and June 2023, Hamas received $41 million in digital assets, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad received $93 million in digital assets. However, Rep. Emmer noted that leading blockchain analytics firms have called that a misinterpretation of the data and that the amount any terrorists might have received is much smaller.
Under Rep. Emmer’s questioning of U.S. Department of Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson during the hearing, the official confirmed that cryptocurrencies are not a popular tool used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in their terror financing efforts.
“I think we have done, in both Hamas and the PIJ, a good job in identifying the virtual asset service providers that they have relied on and the financial facilitators that they have historically relied on that would tend to use virtual assets. So, we do not expect the number is very high particularly,” Nelson said.
Congressman Emmer concluded his questioning by stating that, “… The Treasury must do a better job with all the data it has to paint an accurate narrative of digital assets and not perpetuate a false one.”
In November 2023, Rep. Emmer, along with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Digital Asset Subcommittee Chairman French Hill (R-AR), led 58 of their colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to inquire about the size, scope, and duration of Hamas’s crypto fundraising efforts.