American Woman Found Guilty of Sending Money to ISIS Through Bitcoin
There is no doubt to the fact that bitcoin has managed to be quite a popular cryptocurrency among global investors. The decentralized system of operation of Bitcoin gives investors the freedom to make a global transaction without any sort of intervention from third-party financial institutions like banks and others. However, on the flip side, the cryptocurrency has got its own notoriety as it has long been suspected to be used for malicious activities of money laundering and terror funding.
In one such latest revelation made by the Department of Justice on Thursday, a U.S. woman has been accused of laundering funds worth $85,000 and sending them to the terrorist organization of Islamic State using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The woman identified in this case is 27-year-old named Zoobia Shahnaz who is said to be a Pakistan-born resident of Brentwood and has been working as a lab technician in the U.S. The woman has been slapped with three different charges of bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In a statement, the Department of Justice explained “The defendant defrauded numerous financial institutions and obtained over $85,000 in illicit proceeds, which she converted to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. She then laundered and transferred the funds out of the country to support the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (“ISIS”) … After consummating the scheme, the defendant attempted to leave the United States and travel to Syria. Shahnaz, a U.S. citizen, was arrested yesterday.”
Shahnaz is said to have obtained the funds by misrepresenting her identity and dodging banks to give her $22,500 loans and over a dozen credit cards. She then used this cards to buy cryptocurrencies online worth $62,000, as reported by the district attorney’s office. The digital funds were then wired to some individual accounts and shell corporations in Turkey, China and Pakistan which were destined for terrorist organizations like ISIS.
As reported by BBC, Shahnaz obtained a Pakistani passport and attempted to board a flight at the New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Pakistan in July. The flight had a layover to Istanbul from where she was supposedly intending to travel to Istanbul. Dot reported “Her itinerary included a multi-day layover in Istanbul, Turkey – a common point of entry for individuals traveling from Western countries to join ISIS in Syria. The defendant’s return ticket had been booked for September 4, 2017 on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to JFK.”
Shahnaz was however arrested at the airport with $9,500 in cash which is just under the maximum permissible limit of $10,000. On scanning her electronic device, numerous searches related to Islamic State were found. Shahnaz has been charged guilty and is now facing 20 years prison on each of the money laundering charges and 30 years prison for bank frauds.
Shahnaz’s lawyer, Steve Zissou said that she was sending money to help refugees of Syria. Outside the courthouse, Zissou said, "What she saw made her devoted to lessening the suffering of a lot of the Syrian refugees and everything she does is for that purpose.”