Treasury Releases Deputy Secretary’s Letter About Hamas, Crypto
The two-page letter implored lawmakers to help Treasury “protect against the national security risks created by virtual assets” and said officials can’t always rely on financial institutions to flag crypto transactions involving Hamas.
Wally Adeyemo, deputy US Treasury secretary, during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, April 9, 2024.
Photographer: Tierney L. Cross/BloombergNews stories sometimes inspire my Freedom of Information Act requests. One of my recent requests was in response to a story by the Wall Street Journal that detailed a report the Treasury Department sent to Congress about Hamas and cryptocurrency. Late last week, Treasury responded with some pretty insightful records. Plus, on the fiat money front, I obtained documents from Treasury’s internal watchdog about three separate probes in 2022 involving US Mint coins. If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.
On March 13, the Journal reported that Treasury officials sent Congress a report disclosing that the agency was investigating $165 million in cryptocurrency transactions directed to Hamas. The funds were suspected of being used to prop up the Palestinian militant organization that’s designated a terrorist organization by the US, before the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel. Neither the report, nor a letter attached to it, were publicly released. I set out to obtain copies of both.