US Woman Funding ISIS With Bitcoin Gets 13-Year Jail Sentence

A United States federal court has sentenced a U.S. citizen to 13 years in jail for laundering cash for ISIS utilizing Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies.

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Per a Department of Justice announcement on March 13, Zoobia Shahnaz of Long Island acquired a 13-year sentence for working to fund the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham via cryptocurrency medium of exchange system imagination amounting to over $150,000. She additionally labored to maneuver to Syria to change into a member of ISIS.

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Fraudulent loans for financing

To increase the medium of exchange system imagination, Shahnaz allegedly defrauded main Banks together with American Express, Chase and Discover, in keeping with the unique bill of indictment from December 2019.

The United States alleged that Shahnaz secured loans and bank card game underneath false pretenses, which she used to purchase cryptocurrencies that she funneled via Pakistan, China and Turkey and finally to ISIS.

As Cointelegraph reported, Shahnaz was on her solution to Syria in July of 2019 when officers prevented her from boarding a flight at JFK Airport in New York City. She was after inactive later inside the 12 months.

Motives: Medical help for Syrian refugees

Shahnaz pleaded responsible to the costs once once again in November 2019. In requesting a below-guidelines sentence in a sentencing memo earlier in March, Shahnaz's authorized counsel leaned on her age - she was born in 1990 - additionally to her work volunteering with Syrian refugees through the Syrian American Medical Society.

The sentencing memo continued to spotlight Shahnaz's historical past of charitable work:

"Unlike the79 Americans far-famed in the study who traveled to Syria and/or Iraq since 2011 and related with jihadist groups active in those countries, none were intended by the same things that drove Zoobia Shahnaz. That is, a desire to heal the sick and care for the wounded."

Given that the 5 counts towards her may have garnered her 110 years behind bars reasonably than 13, the protection's proficiency power have labored.