A collaborative effort between Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence firm, the Financial Monitoring Department of the National Bank of Tajikistan and law enforcement agencies in Tajikistan has led to the arrest of multiple individuals associated with Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP), an affiliate of the militant Islamic State group, Binance announced in an Aug. 25 blog post.
Binance said in its blog post that its sanctions investigations and compliance teams worked to identify, locate, and share intelligence about the terrorist group, which led to the arrest of several members of the group, including high-ranking member Shamil Hukumatov. Hukumatov and the other individuals who were arrested were actively involved in planning terror attacks, the blog post said.
A spokesperson for the Financial Monitoring Department acknowledged Binance's role in the arrests. "The National Bank of Tajikistan is committed to doing its part to further national and global security on all fronts, including counterterrorism," a statement from the department, quoted in the Binance blog, said. "Over the past months, our counterterrorism efforts have been facilitated by the proactive intelligence sharing and investigative support provided by investigations experts on the Binance team. This led to successful arrests of key ISKP members that we’ve been targeting for a while now. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with industry players within crypto, including Binance, to combat criminal activities and build a safer cybersecurity space in the region.”
Noah Perlman, Binance's chief compliance officer and the former global head of financial crimes at Morgan Stanley, said in a tweet on X, formerly known as Twitter, "Outstanding work from our Sanctions Investigations team as Binance aids Tajikistan’s efforts to combat the financing of terrorism against an Islamic State affiliate." Perlman also thanked TRM Labs for its role in the initiative and said, "Effective security is collaborative!"
In 2022, Binance’s Investigations team responded to more than 47,000 requests from law enforcement agencies and contributed to the disruption of crimes including hacking, intellectual property theft, terrorist financing, drug smuggling, investment scams, and child abuse material distribution, according to the blog post.