Crypto-financed terror attacks probably quadrupled in the past few years, according to a United Nations official interviewed by Bloomberg. Svetlana Martynova, a senior legal officer at the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, said that a couple of years ago 5% of terrorist attacks were viewed as crypto-financed or linked to digital assets. “Now we’re thinking that it may reach about 20%,” she said. Martynova also spoke on the financing of terror at a United Nations Security Council meeting at the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, one of the sites of a Nov. 26, 2008, attack that left 175 people dead and more than 300 wounded. “With regards to moving funds, experts agree that cash and other time transfers remain the prevalent methods used by terrorists,” she said in the address. But “there was also an increase in their use in combination with new payment methods.”
Those new methods include mobile payment systems and virtual assets, she said. “Blockchains, cryptocurrencies and crowdfunding sometimes pose a complex money trail for financial investigators to follow. Some of these products can enable anonymous cross-border funds transfers.”
Full report : Crypto-Linked Terror Attacks Probably Quadrupled, UN Official Says: Report.
