A person from the US state of Virginia will spend over three a long time behind bars after being convicted of sending crypto to the terrorist group generally referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Federal Decide David Novak sentenced Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa to 30 years and 4 months in jail on Could 7 for sending over $185,000 to the Islamic State, the Division of Justice said on Could 8.
Prosecutors stated that from round October 2019 till October 2022, the 35-year-old Chhipa collected and despatched cash to feminine Islamic State members in Syria, which helped them escape jail camps and funded combating.
The Justice Division stated Chhipa would raise funds for the United Nations-designated terror group by means of social media — receiving cash on-line, or touring a whole lot of miles to just accept donations in particular person.
He’d convert the cash into crypto and send it to Turkey for it to be smuggled to Islamic State members throughout the border in Syria, prosecutors stated.
A federal jury convicted Chhipa in December, discovering him responsible on a cost of conspiracy to offer assist to a terrorist group and 4 expenses of offering and trying to offer assist to a terrorist group.
“This defendant straight financed ISIS in its efforts to commit vile terrorist atrocities towards harmless residents in America and overseas,” Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi stated in a press release. “This extreme sentence illustrates that when you fund terrorism, we are going to prosecute you and put you behind bars for many years.”
Chhipa tried to flee US throughout FBI probe
Prosecutors stated that through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into Chhipa, he tried to flee the nation to flee prosecution and tried to cover his tracks by means of a collection of actions seemingly geared toward complicated authorities.
In response to a motion for detention filed in August, FBI brokers searched Chhipa’s home on Aug. 2, 2019, and that night time Chhipa drove to a financial institution, withdrew $1,800 from an ATM, after which went to a Taco Bell, the place he paid a stranger for a trip to a relative’s home. The relative then drove him to a grocery retailer.
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Three days later, prosecutors stated Chhipa “bought a collection of bus tickets utilizing variations and/or misspelling of his title and not too long ago created e mail accounts.”
He then travelled from Virginia to Mexico and onto Guatemala. He then purchased tickets to fly from Guatemala to Panama, then onto Germany, after which to Egypt, however an Interpol Blue Discover was issued, and he was returned to the US.
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