US Treasury Sanctions Terrorist Financier for Providing Crypto-Related Services to Hezbollah

Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on entities and individuals that have engaged in facilitating commodity shipments and financial transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Houthis, and Hezbollah. The action is another move by OFAC to target and disrupt IRGC-QF finances and Iran’s support to terrorist groups such as the Houthis. 

As part of today’s action, OFAC sanctioned Lebanon-based Syrian money exchanger Tawfiq Muhammad Sa’id al-Law (al-Law) for providing Hezballah with digital wallets to receive funds from IRGC-QF commodity sales and for facilitating cryptocurrency transfers for sanctioned Hezbollah officials.

In addition, OFAC added a cryptocurrency address – TWBAPzpPiZarfVsY2BLXeaLhNHurn4wkWG – associated with al-Law. That address, which was seized by Israel authorities in July 2023, was already labeled as associated with Hezbollah and al-Law in TRM and is now labeled sanctions.

According to TRM, the sanctioned address, on the TRON blockchain, was engaged in over a thousand transactions  associated with tens-of-millions of dollars primarily in the stablecoin USDT (Tether).

Over the last few years, the US Department of Justice and Treasury, along with Israeli authorities have repeatedly targeted Hezbollah and the IRGC’s use of cryptocurrency. In July 2023 Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) seized millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency belonging to the groups. 

A total of 40 addresses were on NBCTF’s seizure list, all of which were USDT on the TRON network. According to Israeli authorities, the key address seized in that action was the address controlled by al-Law.

At the time of the seizure, TRM identified on-chain links between the seized addresses and entities and exchanges located in Iran, Syria, Iraq and the Gaza strip, all of which have ties to the IRGC and Hezbollah.