“Loopholes to circumvent sanctions”: the US Treasury is purchasing specialized software for monitoring the Russian-language darknet

The bidding document notes that the Treasury's Finance and Budget Procurement Unit, acting on behalf of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), intends to award EJ2 Communications, Inc.

(DBA Flashpoint) contract to transfer the Flashpoint Enterprise Platform product. 

“Flashpoint collects and organizes data from primary sources on the deep and dark web,” the documents state.

“This information is taken from forums, social networks, source code publishing sites and other online channels where extremists and cybercriminals communicate and spread propaganda.”

It is noted that in the extensive Flashpoint database, the collected intelligence is sorted by geographic location, file name, specific words, publication date, source, group, content description and original language.

In addition, Flashpoint provides users with products and services that specialize in threat intelligence. 

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Flashpoint's intelligence methods and capabilities are said to be "unique and directly support FinCEN's mission to guard the global financial system."

Thus, it is emphasized that the emphasis in the use of software will be on various aspects of financial intelligence.

Russians are not allowed

It is worth dwelling on the possibilities of monitoring the information of interest to the relevant departments of the US Treasury in more detail.

The contract description notes that Flashpoint provides critical financial intelligence “through an impressive combination of human monitoring and automated monitoring of popular modern jihadist and cybercriminal sites, deep web and dark web forums, and other sources.” 

The enumeration of the priority areas of analysis that follows leaves no doubt as to who is one of the priority targets of American public financiers.

In particular, it is emphasized that “Flashpoint has a large team of specialized experts in the field of culture, technology and linguistics, including Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, German, French, Russian and 12 other languages.

These experts can interact with FinCEN and provide support through commercially available products and services.”

It should be noted that when trying to access the site of the Flashpoint supplier - EJ2 Communications - users from Russia are specifically blocked from accessing the site precisely because of their geographic location.

Look for who benefits

The desire of US government agencies to conduct automated searches on the dark web in foreign languages, including Russian, is connected with the US desire to correct and establish feedback on the sanctions track, says Yevgeny Yushchuk, a member of the International Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals.

“I think there is a goal here to identify ways to circumvent sanctions.

Perhaps someone also wants to establish contact with people who want to sell information, ”says the expert.

He does not rule out that the US authorities "specially leave loopholes to bypass sanctions measures." 

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“For example, when they imposed an embargo on oil and fuel oil, they deliberately left a loophole: if you bought not directly from Russia, but through someone, then this is normal,” Yushchuk explained.

“Therefore, I do not rule out that such trends also take place there.

That is, it works in all directions - it is, in fact, such a sieve through which it flows in all directions.

And the US Treasury itself can deliberately leave loopholes to circumvent sanctions, the expert believes.

“In this case, the US Treasury, being the customer of this whole story, is acting precisely in the logic of leaving loopholes to circumvent sanctions,” he explained.

- It should be understood that the US imposes sanctions not out of harm, but in order to harm the opponent.

If something is unprofitable for them, they correct it.

And for these purposes of adjustment, a certain communication system is needed, which is not visible from the outside.

As RT previously reported, the American financial department decided to introduce additional restrictions on the Russian Central Bank.

It should be noted that the US Treasury also restricts the activities of American commercial companies, including accounting and auditing services.

At the same time, the department made a special reservation regarding the activities of NGOs whose work is aimed at "promoting democracy."