According to Chainalysis, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has expanded sanctions against the Afghanistan-Pakistan branch of ISIS. According to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the updated sanctions list now includes 131 TRON addresses and three Monero addresses.
OFAC also imposed sanctions on members of a criminal network in Brazil, including two Brazilian nationals and four companies affiliated with the criminal organization Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). According to the agency, the network used cryptocurrencies to move more than $30 M in proceeds from illegal activities in the United States to Brazil.
The new sanctions require crypto service providers to strengthen customer due diligence and transaction monitoring. Foreign financial institutions that conduct business with individuals or entities on the sanctions list also risk becoming subject to U.S. restrictions.
According to Chainalysis, since 2023, the wallets added to the sanctions list have received more than $1.4 M in cryptocurrencies, while outgoing transfers have exceeded $880,000. Some of those funds passed through widely used crypto services before reaching crypto exchange platforms in Syria.
ISIS remains one of the branches of the terrorist organization operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. According to U.S. authorities, a media organization associated with the group has been raising cryptocurrency donations through websites and messaging apps for several years.
Tether has already frozen funds in all sanctioned TRON addresses.