WASHINGTON - Today, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes Elizabeth Rosenberg and Deputy Homeland Security Adviser Joshua Geltzer hosted a roundtable at the U.S. Department of the Treasury with public and private sector participants on the use of virtual assets by Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) and foreign Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs).
As noted in the 2022 National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment, foreign-based RMVE groups and some DVEs have sought to facilitate their illicit activities by soliciting or transferring funds in virtual assets or expressed interest in using virtual assets to move funds pseudonymously.
The roundtable discussions focused on how DVEs and foreign RMVEs have raised, moved, or used funds using virtual assets and some of the challenges in identifying and reporting misuse of virtual assets by these groups, along with potential opportunities for collaboration.
In parallel with today’s engagement and to support Treasury’s implementation of the Biden-Harris Administration’s 2021 National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism and commitments made at the 2022 United We Stand Summit, Treasury is launching a landing page of select reports and assessments for private and public sector entities seeking to develop an understanding of DVE, their foreign analogues, and associated financial activity.
Financial institutions are encouraged to reference these reports to inform their anti-money laundering programs. As noted in FinCEN’s Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Filing Instructions, financial institutions should immediately notify law enforcement if they suspect terrorist financing or ongoing money laundering schemes, in addition to filing a timely SAR.
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