Cryptocurrency stolen from Delhi businessman traced to Hamas wallets

New Delhi, October 11: In a fascinating turn of events, a cryptocurrency theft case in Delhi in the winter of 2021 has been linked to the wallets of the Palestinian terror group Hamas. The investigation was initially initiated by the Delhi Police's Special Cell when a west Delhi businessman reported a theft of approximately Rs 4 crore from his cryptocurrency wallet. While the police managed to trace a few recipient wallet IDs, identifying the ultimate culprits proved to be a challenging task. 

However, a key breakthrough came in the form of information shared by Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, during their routine exchange of intelligence with Indian authorities. Mossad provided a list of suspicious wallets being operated by terrorist groups for financing acts of terror.

Remarkably, a significant number of the wallet addresses on this list were found to be associated with the al Qassam brigades, the cyber terrorism wing of Hamas. These wallets had been previously seized by Israel's National Bureau for counter-terror financing.

The investigation took an international twist when the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Ops (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police's Special Cell cross-referenced the wallets. They discovered that several of the wallets that had received the stolen Bitcoin and Ethereum assets from the Delhi theft were being operated by the cyber-terrorism division of Hamas.

Recent reports suggest that Hamas has been actively fundraising through cryptocurrency, and Israel has responded to this by freezing a substantial number of cryptocurrency accounts linked to Hamas for fundraising purposes.

Israel's police cyber unit also took action by suspending these accounts, as it was suspected that Hamas had initiated a crypto fundraising campaign following the start of the latest series of terror attacks. Israeli authorities have urged crypto exchange Binance to transfer the seized funds to the country's state treasury.

This case marked the first known instance of Hamas's involvement in India. The Special Cell officers revealed that the details of their investigation were shared with relevant authorities at the time. The investigation was originally reported in 2019 at Paschim Vihar police station and was later transferred to the Special Cell following court orders.

After uncovering the link to Hamas, technical analysis further disclosed that one of the seized wallets belonged to Naseer Ibrahim Abdulla in Gaza, and other wallets were connected to Hamas operatives such as Ahmed Marzooq in Giza and Ahmed QH Safi in Ramallah, Palestine. The stolen cryptocurrencies had been routed through various private wallets before ultimately landing in these suspected wallets.

Also Read: NewsClick row: CBI initiates investigation into NewsClick for FCRA violations, conducts searches

- With inputs from agencies

Join Whatsapp Channel