US Lawmakers Launch Bill to Counter Terrorism and Threats Involving Digital Assets

Several U.S. lawmakers person introduced a bipartisan measure to ace down connected violent organizations by applying sanctions to overseas entities, including crypto platforms, that facilitate fiscal transactions for terrorists. The authorities would besides “equip the Treasury Department with further resources to antagonistic coercion and code emerging threats involving integer assets,” said 1 of the lawmakers who introduced the bill.

Terrorism Financing Prevention Act

U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-VA), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Mitt Romney (R-UT) announced Thursday that they person introduced bipartisan authorities titled Terrorist Financing Prevention Act of 2023 to “crack down connected violent organizations similar Hamas by applying sanctions to overseas parties that facilitate fiscal transactions with terrorists.”

The announcement explains: “Currently, these sanctions are imposed lone successful constricted circumstances, chiefly connected the violent radical Hezbollah pursuing transition of the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act successful 2015. The Terrorism Financing Prevention Act introduced contiguous volition grow this benignant of sanctions to screen each U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), including Hamas, and different overseas parties that are controlled by oregon enactment connected behalf of those FTOs.”

Senator Rounds commented:

The Terrorism Financing Prevention Act takes commonsense steps toward rooting retired coercion by sanctioning overseas fiscal institutions and overseas integer plus companies that assistance them successful committing these heinous acts. Cutting disconnected backing for violent organizations astatine the root volition prevention lives.

“It is captious to bolster the Treasury Department’s tools to support our nationalist and economical security. With this bill, we are forcing overseas fiscal institutions and overseas crypto firms to take betwixt doing concern with violent organizations oregon maintaining entree to the U.S. fiscal system,” Senator Reed opined.

Specifically, the measure requires the U.S. Department of the Treasury to “identify immoderate overseas slope oregon overseas integer plus transaction facilitator that knowingly facilitates transactions with an FTO oregon related party,” the announcement notes. “Once these actors are identified, the measure requires imposition of sanctions connected them, restricting either their usage of U.S. analogous slope accounts (in the lawsuit of a bank), oregon barring their integer plus oregon different transactions with U.S. persons (in the lawsuit of a integer plus transaction facilitator).”

The measure besides contains a cardinal proviso from the Crypto-Asset National Security Enhancement and Enforcement (CANSEE) Act the senators antecedently introduced. This proviso volition supply the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) “with due tools to code threats involving integer assets and non-traditional concern networks,” the senators explained.

Noting that the Oct. 7 attacks connected Israel perpetrated by Hamas “have made it much urgent and indispensable for the U.S. to antagonistic the relation that cryptocurrency plays successful the financing of terrorism,” Senator Romney described:

Our authorities would grow fiscal sanctions to screen each violent organizations — including Hamas — and it would equip the Treasury Department with further resources to antagonistic coercion and code emerging threats involving integer assets.

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