The National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) at the Ministry of Defense, in cooperation with the intelligence community, exposed a cryptocurrency-based financing infrastructure used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to transfer funds to terrorist operatives in the region, including the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
Acting on the recommendation of the NBCTF, Defense Minister Israel Katz today (Wednesday) signed sanction orders against 37 digital wallets that constituted a central component of the IRGC's terror financing network. Cryptocurrencies with a total value exceeding NIS 24 million were identified in these wallets.
The investigation revealed that the wallets were used to transfer funds to Iranian-backed terrorist organizations, foremost among them Hezbollah, which requires financial support following the severe damage it sustained during the fighting with Israel. An in-depth analysis of the wallets, which were part of this infrastructure and were also linked, inter alia, to Hezbollah, indicates that tens of millions of dollars were transferred through this system over the years to terrorist organizations.
This action represents an additional layer in the economic campaign led by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing at the Ministry of Defense against the financing infrastructures of the IRGC and its proxies - including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.
Disrupting the financing axis is the result of integrated intelligence, operational, and legal efforts conducted by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing and additional security agencies.
Defense Minister Israel Katz:
"The campaign against Iran is not waged solely on the battlefield, but also in the fight over the financial resources that drive terrorism. Every dollar denied to the Revolutionary Guards is a dollar that will not reach Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iran's terrorist proxies. We will continue to target all financing channels of the Iranian terror axis, everywhere and by every means."
Head of the NBCTF, Yoray Matzlawi:
"There is no immunity for terror financiers even in the crypto sphere. The NBCTF will continue to detect, expose, and disrupt the financing infrastructures of Iran and its proxies, wherever they operate."
ASO 18/26
