TERRORIST FINANCING TO HAMAS USING CRYPTOCURRENCY CONTINUES UNABATED FROM VALLETTA

If you recall our article about the flow of Bitcoin to Hamas from Malta, As Cryptocurrency Flows to Hamas Increase, How much is Coming from Malta? (July 2, 2021), you know that there is, effectively, no active law enforcement effort in the Republic of Malta to interdict the ongoing operation whereby cryptocurrency is transmitted to the Palestinian global terrorist organisation, HAMAS. No sooner had Hamas indicated openly online that it was receptive to receiving funds, via Bitcoin, and other crypto, the Palestinian expat colony in Malta commenced transferring wealth to it. A prominent Maltese bank has been facilitating the payments.

According to updated information from one of our sources, the funding is not only going to Hamas in the Palestinian Territory of Gaza, it is additionally being send covertly into the West Bank, where it is now finding, in part, the increased terrorist activities Hamas is directing against Israeli civilians, police and military, both in that area and inside Israel proper. There has been a substantial increase in the number of Israeli casualties this year, which raises the question: how much of the production and acquisition of illegal arms and explosives, by Hamas operatives in the West Bank, was funded through this cryptocurrency? 

 Due to Malta's longstanding diplomatic and political relationship with both the legitimate Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which is very pro-Palestine, we do not expect that there will ever be any action to suppress the illicit crypto pipeline. Therefore only international efforts, possibly through agencies of the European Union, are the only hope were have to interdict this illicit terrorist financing. Alternatively, American sanctions of the financial institutions inside Malta could be an effective curb, but we have not seen any indication that this has even been contemplated. The current situation does not appear to have a short-term solution, so long as Maltese compliance officers ignore the problem.