187 Crypto Wallets Seized by Israeli Government After Allegations They Processed $1,500,000,000 in USDT for Iran: Report
The Israeli government has reportedly frozen 187 crypto wallets suspected to be used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Citing anti-terrorism laws, Israel’s Ministry of Defense says it has acted on suspicion that the wallets belong to the IRGC – a designated terrorist group in Israel and several other countries, including the US.
Israel Katz, the country’s Minister of Defense, states that the order will remain in effect for a period of two years from the date of its signature, or “until such time as an order for the forfeiture of the property seized hereby is signed.”
The list of wallets includes 187 USDT wallets, 39 of which have now been blacklisted by Tether, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic .
Says the firm,
“Elliptic has taken urgent action to ensure that addresses that were included in the NBCTF seizure order are available to screen and trace using our next-generation Holistic blockchain analytics technology. Users will now be able to ensure that they do not inadvertently process funds originating from – or being sent to – addresses included in the seizure order.
These addresses have collectively received $1.5 billion in Tether’s USDT stablecoin. However, it is not possible to verify whether all of these transactions are directly linked to the IRGC since some of the addresses may be controlled by cryptocurrency services and could be part of wallet infrastructure used to facilitate transactions for many customers.”
Featured Image: Shutterstock/is.a.bella
