In December 2020, approximately one month before the assault on the U.S. capitol, Laurent B., a French national, transferred the equivalent of € 400,000 to alt-right groups in the United States, illustrating the transnational component of U.S. domestic terrorism.[1]
The Financing
On December 8, 2020, Laurent B, a French computer scientist, transferred € 260,000 from his Bitcoin account to far-right activist and Internet personality Nick Fuentes, who was photographed on January 6, on the steps leading to the U.S. Senate, where he claims not to enter. Fuentes is a homophobic, anti-Semitic, white supremacist.[2]
Chainalysis has also traced transfers by Laurent B of € 20,000 to Patrick Casey, a leader of the U.S. supremacist movement Identity Evropa. On November 2020, it was dissolved. [3]
At the start of December 2020, Laurent B. transferred € 410,000 to about fifteen groups and activists of the alt-right, as well as a few online services, including the ultra-right social network Gab.[4]
Laurent B. financed his donation wallet with cryptocurrency from a French exchange, which he moved to the donation wallet through “Extremist Legacy Wallet.”[5]
On December 9, 2020, Laurent B. committed suicide, shortly after making the transfers. Before his death he posted on his personal blog, explaining his donations. He talked of the suffering of an illness and the “decadence of Western civilization.”
Analysis
The reports of the donations show that in a global world domestic extremism necessarily has links to international networks and financing. The reports also indicate that the January 6 attack was well organized and funded.
The reports indicate the apparent use of cryptocurrency to make transnational funding of terrorist groups. In the last month the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury (FinCEN) has increased regulations on transferring cryptocurrency and reporting cryptocurrency on Foreign Bank Reports.[6]
The reports of the transnational funding of U.S. domestic terrorist groups require the U.S. to quickly develop the counter-terrorism financial enforcement developed after the 9/11 attacks, targeting foreign terrorist groups. U.S. law enforcement will need to redeploy some of these same mechanisms. They include designated terrorist groups and individuals, freezing assets, putting domestic terrorists on the “no fly” list, increasing public-private cooperation, and increasing terrorist financing intelligence.[7]
The current issue of the IELR will have a more comprehensive discussion of these developments.
[1] Damien Leloup, The mysterious gifts of a French computer scientist to American neo-Nazis (Les mystérieux dons d’un informaticien français à des néonazis américains), Le Monde, Jan. 15, 2021.
[2] Id.
[3] Id. For the Chainalysis account, see Chainalysis Team, Alt-Right Groups and Personalities Involved In Last Week’s Capitol Riot Received Over $500K In Bitcoin From French Donor One Month Prior, Jan. 14, 2021 https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/capitol-riot-bitcoin-donation-alt-right-domestic-extremism.
[4] Leloup, supra.
[5] Chainalysis Team, supra.
[6] Bruce Zagaris, FinCEN Will Require Persons to Report Virtual Currency as Part of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts and Will Require Recordkeeping for Transfers into Crypto Wallets, 37 Int’l Enforcement L. Rep. __ (Jan. 2021).
[7] For background on the actions taken by the George W. Bush Administration on terrorist financing regulation and enforcement, see Jimmy Gurule, Unfunding Terror: The Legal Response to the Financing of Global Terrorism (2008). Gurule was the former Undersecretary (Enforcement) in the U.S. Department of the Treasury (2001-2003).
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