A Washington watchdog group alleged that Circle, the digital currency firm, helps fund terrorist organizations, which have been strenuously denied by the company.
A letter was sent to Sherrod Brown, the Senate Committee Chairman and Senator Elizabeth Warren to dispute the claims.
The letter
Dante Disparte, the Chief Strategy Officer at Circle, disputed the claims in a letter that was sent by the Campaign for Accountability to these lawmakers.
The 13-page letter asserted that Circle assists terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas through money laundering.
Disparte refuted these claims, along with those of Circle being linked to Justin Sun, the founder of the blockchain platform TRON, which is based in China.
The Chief Strategy Officer said that the company did not directly or indirectly finance or facilitate Hamas and neither does it bank Justin Sun.
As far as financial crimes are concerned, Disparte said that Circle had cooperated with law enforcement rather extensively on the matter.
He stated that the US Secret Service had recognized Circle in the last month for its support in identifying ‘pig-butchering’ scams and fraud and had also assisted in the fund recovery process.
The response
He went on to say that claims of Circle supporting terrorism financing were false and downright misleading.
As far as Justin Sun is concerned, Disparte revealed that Circle had cut off ties with the controversial crypto figure earlier this year.
He was also quick to point out that Justin Sun, or any of his companies, had not been put on the Specially Designated Nationals list by the US government.
Regardless, he said that Circle had still put an end to all accounts of Justin Sun and any of his affiliated companies in February of this year.
He added that this included Huobi Global as well as the TRON Foundation, both of which are associated with Sun.
More details
The Campaign for Accountability had said in its letter that Israeli authorities had seized assets in July, which targeted a total of 26 digital currency wallets.
These wallets held funds linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian terror group, and they were valued at $93 million.
According to the letter, the crypto tokens that had been identified in the wallets in question included stablecoins issued by Circle, as well as Tether.
However, Disparte stated that according to public blockchain records, the 26 wallets only transferred Circle’s stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC) valued at $160.
In addition, he was also quick to clarify that these tokens had not been acquired from Circle. He said that these claims were misleading and inaccurate because they had not been verified.
He said that they had been posted on social media without any corroboration and asserted that Circle had been involved in financing Hezbollah and Hamas.
Disparte also emphasized that high regulatory standards are maintained by Circle and the company operates as a licensed money transmitter in 46 US states.
Therefore, it combats money laundering in accordance with the rules outlined in the US Bank Secrecy Act.