Sputnik Finds Cryptocurrency Wallet Possibly Linked to Crocus City Hall Terrorist Attack

© Sputnik . Kirill Kallinikov / Go to the mediabankThe Crocus City Hall concert venue after the attack of March 23, 2024
The Crocus City Hall concert venue after the attack of March 23, 2024 - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 30.03.2024
Subscribe
Those accused of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall near Moscow on March 22 confessed during interrogations that their actions were coordinated by a man under an alias via voice messages in Telegram, the Russian Investigative Committee stated this week. So far, nine suspects in the case of the terrorist attack have been detained.
Sputnik has pinpointed a cryptocurrency wallet that was supposedly used by those who masterminded and carried out the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall venue near Moscow last week, as a sum equal to half of what the perpetrators were supposed to collect was transferred through it.
The address of the wallet, opened on the Tronscan platform, was posted on a Telegram channel associated with the Afghan branch of the Daesh* terrorist group, known as ISIS-Khorasan. The channel was managed by a user who was also an administrator of the Khorasan channel on Telegram. On Wednesday, a source told Sputnik that those who carried out the terrorist attack had been recruited via this channel, which has now been deleted.
The wallet address first came up online on March 12, in a post of an extremist channel on Telegram, Sputnik discovered after studying data on transactions available on the internet. The next day, the wallet received its first payment in the amount of $2.19.
The channel in question was run by an admin with the nickname Mavlavi_56. The same user also managed another Telegram channel called Voice of Khorasan. According to a source, the second Telegram channel was used to recruit the terrorists who attacked Crocus City Hall.

Mavlavi_56 published a post three times with the title "Collecting funds to help captive families and children - Mujahid – Muhajirs," where the address of the above mentioned wallet was given (once on March 18 and twice on March 20).

Furthermore, on March 22, when the terror attack was carried out, the channel posted a link to a sermon with a photo of a masked militant. At the same time, the wallet received tranches of $325, $550, $550 and $1,100, which roughly corresponds with the amount specified by the terrorists.
Money transferred to the wallet was immediately withdrawn, suggesting that it was an intermediary wallet between the masterminds and the terrorists. Money was not going directly to and from the wallet, but through accounts with high transaction volumes, presumably one of the crypto exchanges.
The wallet had no transactions after the attack.
Terrorist attack in the Moscow region - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 29.03.2024
Telegram Founder Says Thousands of Accounts Calling for Terror Blocked Since March 22
Moreover, a number of a US-issued bank card appeared on the channel on February 29, when it was used for collecting funds for other purposes (not for "assistance to the mujahideen"). The card's identification number started with 4100, indicating that it was issued in the United States.
When entering its number in the input field for money transfer from a Russian bank app, a US flag symbol appears with the message "The country of issue of the card is the US. Remittance to this card is not available."
Interestingly, a user with a similar nickname – Mavlavii55 – appeared in the article "Tajik Islamic State* network fundraises in Russia" published earlier by the Eurasianet, an organization based at US Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. It mentioned the administrator of the Tajik-language channels "Devotion and Loyalty" and the same "Voice of Khorasan" (or "Sadoi Khuroson" in Tajik).
A deadly shooting occurred on March 22 in the Crocus City Hall concert venue in the city of Krasnogorsk, just outside Moscow, followed by a massive fire. A Sputnik correspondent who witnessed the attack reported that a number of gunmen dressed in camouflage broke into the music hall, shooting people point-blank and throwing incendiary bombs.
The Moscow region emergency ministry said that at least 144 people were killed and 695 were injured as a result of the attack. The four main suspects in the case — all citizens of Tajikistan — were detained and charged with terrorism.
The Crocus City Hall terrorist attack is the deadliest in Russia in nearly 20 years, after the Beslan school siege in September 2004, which resulted in 333 deaths, including children.
The worst terrorist attacks in Russia - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 24.03.2024
Infographic
How Many People Have Died in Terrorist Attacks in Modern Russia?
* Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other states.
Newsfeed
0