Cynthia Lummis Calls for DoJ Action Against Binance and Tether
- Cynthia Lummis and French Hill asked the DoJ officials to take action against Binance and Tether.
- The US representatives claim that Binance is used by Hamas to raise funds.
- They also claim that Tether has failed to comply with sanction policies and the Bank Secrecy Act.
- Elliptic said that Hamas’ crypto usage is “very tiny” and US lawmakers are manipulating facts.
Cynthia Lummis, an American attorney and politician who is currently the junior United States senator from Wyoming, along with businessman and politician French Hill, who is currently serving as the representative for Arkansas’s 2nd congressional district, have called for a Department of Justice (DoJ) action against the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance and the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, Tether.
In a letter dated October 26 and sent to United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, Cynthia Lummis and French Hill asked the Justice Department officials to “reach a charging decision on Binance” and “expeditiously conclude” investigations of allegedly illicit activities involving Tether. The two companies form the core of the digital asset community, as Binance has the highest trading volume while Tether issues the largest stablecoin by market capitalization.
Cynthia Lummis and Hill noted that “crypto assets and distributed ledger technology have the potential to drive responsible innovation in US financial markets” and added that “we must be careful not to paint all crypto asset intermediaries as suspects when a small handful of bad actors use them for nefarious purposes.”
The representatives stated in the letter that the Hamas are using Binance to fund their terrorist agenda. Lummis and Hill pointed out earlier articles by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, stating that Israeli authorities are shutting down accounts on Binance related to Hamas financing.
Interestingly, Elliptic, a blockchain analysis provider, has pointed out that the usage of cryptocurrency by Hamas is “very tiny,” and the WSJ reports along with the US representatives are manipulating facts to make crypto look bad.
According to Lummis, Tether is “knowingly facilitating violations of applicable sanctions laws and the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to conduct adequate customer due diligence and screenings despite being aware that its product is used to facilitate terrorism and other illicit activities.”
“We urge the Department of Justice to carefully evaluate the extent to which Binance and Tether are providing material support and resources to support terrorism through violations of applicable sanctions laws and the Bank Secrecy Act,” said Lummis and Hill.
Cynthia Lummis and Hill said that they “strongly support swift action by the Department of Justice against Binance and Tether to choke off sources of funding to the terrorists currently targeting Israel.”
As earlier reported by Bitnation, Cynthia Lummis asked lawmakers to create a comprehensive regulatory framework for the digital asset industry in July.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
