Circle denies alleged ties to Justin Sun and Hamas in letter to lawmakers
Circle’s letter follows one from the Campaign for Accountability alleging ties to Justin Sun and TRON
Senator Elizabeth Warren | Maverick Pictures/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
Circle, in a public letter addressed to Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-OH, on Thursday to push back against claims that it banked Justin Sun and, separately, had financed Hamas.
The letter — penned by Circle’s Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte — was written in response to a Nov. 9 letter from the Campaign for Accountability which claimed that Circle does not prevent illicit finance activities.
The letter from the Campaign for Accountability executive director Michelle Kuppersmith claimed that there were ties from Circle to Sun, based on “recently published studies and reports of law enforcement operations.”
Circle, in its Nov. 30 letter, said, “neither Mr. Sun nor any entity owned or controlled by Mr. Sun, including the TRON Foundation or Huobi Global, currently have accounts with Circle.”
Read more: Huobi’s ‘Heco’ chain bridge drained of $87M in crypto assets
“To date, the US government has not specifically designated Mr. Sun or his entities as Specially Designated Nationals. Nonetheless, Circle terminated all accounts held by Mr. Sun and his affiliated companies in February 2023,” the letter continued.
In March, the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Sun for allegedly selling securities.
“As alleged in the complaint, Sun and others used an age-old playbook to mislead and harm investors by first offering securities without complying with registration and disclosure requirements and then manipulating the market for those very securities,” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a March statement.
Both Warren and Brown signed off on a letter back in October pushing the Biden Administration to “address crypto-financed terrorism.” The basis of the letter stemmed from a report in the Wall Street Journal which claimed that Hamas used crypto to fund its attacks on Israel.
Elliptic, which provided the data used by the Journal report, refuted the conclusion saying that there was “no evidence” that Hamas raised millions in crypto.
Circle said that it “would be happy to discuss any of the above” with both Warren and Brown.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
