UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, : : Plaintiff, : Civil Action No.: 20-cv-2228 (RC) : v. : Re Document No.: 10 : 155 VIRTUAL CURRENCY ASSETS, : : Defendants. : MEMORANDUM OPINION GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR ENTRY OF DEFAULT JUDGMENT I. INTRODUCTION This action arises out of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s Cyber Crimes Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations. Plaintiff United States of America (“the Government”) seeks the forfeiture of 155 virtual currency assets (collectively, “Defendant Properties”) that were involved in a number of transactions that directly or indirectly supported and financed terrorism. No claimant to the assets has responded to the complaint, and the Clerk of the Court entered default on February 26, 2021. The Government now asks this Court to enter a default judgment against the Defendant Properties. For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants this motion. II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND This case involves a number of entities designated by the United States Secretary of State as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (“FTOs”), including al-Qaeda, Jam’at al Tawhid wa’al-Jihad, and al-Nusrah Front, as well as their aliases and entities soliciting donations to financially support them. According to the Government, a number of entities solicited online donations of bitcoin, a decentralized virtual currency, to finance these FTOs. The Government alleges that this scheme ran afoul of 18 U.S.C. § 2332b, an antiterrorism statute, and that the entities’ assets are thus subject to forfeiture pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(G)(i). The Court will briefly summarize the relevant law and describe the alleged financing scheme in more detail. A. Statutory Framework Federal statute makes “[a]ll assets, foreign or domestic[,] of any individual, entity, or organization engaged in planning or perpetrating any . . . Federal crime of terrorism” subject to forfeiture to the United States. 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(G)(i). Numerous offenses may qualify as a “Federal crime of terrorism” so long as they are “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct.” Id. § 2332b(g)(5). One such offense is “knowingly provid[ing] material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.” See id. § 2339B(a); see also id. § 2332b(g)(5)(i). For the purposes of that offense, a “terrorist organization” is any organization designated as such under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Id. § 2339B(g)(6). This statutory scheme “empowers the government to seek the forfeiture of property outside the United States, which may have never touched the United States. The broad expanse of this language is for forfeiture actions to reach all property of terrorist organizations.” United States v. One Gold Ring with Carved Gemstone, No. 16-CV-2442, 2019 WL 5853493, at *1 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2019). B. Relevant Facts and Procedural History The Government outlines in its verified complaint a number of instances in which various organizations solicited, via social media, donations that directly or indirectly financed a number 2 of FTOs. Before …
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