Lithuanian authorities probe possible terror funding scheme via Vilnius-based firm

Lithuania’s Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNNT) is investigating possible illegal fundraising for the Islamic State via a Vilnius-based company, the 15min news website reported on Tuesday.

An intelligence and terrorism information center named after Meir Amit, a former chief of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, back in 2017 published a report that the ISIS-affiliated website Akhbar al-Muslimin had launched a drive for Bitcoin donations that might be used for ISIS goals.

Clicking on the link opened a cryptocurrency payment gateway run by Vilnius-based Virtualios Valiutos. Dmitry Borisenko, the company’s CEO, said they had no suspicions about the user, but carried out an internal investigation after receiving information from the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau and handed over the user’s data the authorities.

The service asking for donations for the Akhbar al-Muslimin website was online for ten days and raised almost 200 euros.

Law-enforcement bodies provide no official information about the case, but 15min.lt quoted its sources as saying that a pre-trial investigation into suspicions of financing or support for terrorist activities is underway.

Source: Baltic Times