An image of the flag of the Islamic State retrieved by Justice Department officials from one of three U.S. citizens and one Canadian charged on Wednesday with conspiring to provide material support ISIS.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice
Dec. 15 (UPI) — Authorities have charged three U.S. citizens and one Canadian with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State, the Justice Department confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors with the Eastern District of New York unsealed an indictment on Wednesday against the three men and one woman, charging them with attempting to provide support to both ISIS and the Islamic State of Iraq.
Mohammad Hashimi, 35, of Potomac Falls, Va., Abdullah At Taqi, 23, of Queens, N.Y., Seema Rahman, 25, of Edison, N.J. were arrested in those municipalities Wednesday. Khalilullah Yousuf, 34, of Ontario, Canada was arrested the same day by Canadian authorities, acting on a request from U.S. prosecutors.
Prosecutors contend the group raised more than $35,000 which was donated to ISIS and related groups.
All four defendants have made their initial court appearances and were denied bail pending trial.
Authorities contend Hashimi and Yousuf were members of a group chat on an encrypted social media and mobile messaging electronic communication service. The two men allegedly used that service to facilitate communication between and among supporters of ISIS and other “groups that adhered to similar violent jihadist ideologies.”
The group reportedly began working in early April 2021, formulating plans to post donation links disguised as humanitarian causes. Those links were in fact aimed at helping the terrorist groups.
Yousuf provided a link to a specific Bitcoin address and another member of the group posted a link to a PayPal campaign. Both accounts were controlled by an unnamed individual in the complaint, according to the Justice Department.
Taqi and the unnamed individual discussed using the money collected to support ISIS fighters, and the individual later provided photographic proof that the funds were being used for that purpose.
“As alleged, this crowdfunding network used cryptocurrency, Bitcoin wallets, GoFundMe and PayPal to collect and raise blood money to support ISIS, not for needy families as they falsely claimed in their attempt to deceive law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement.
“I commend our prosecutors and the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force for piercing the veil of secrecy to identify the perpetrators of this scheme, reveal the true evil nature of these virtual money transfers, and bring to justice those who seek to enable acts of violent extremism.”
All four defendants are charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
“These defendants promoted the violent extremism of ISIS by pretending to raise money for humanitarian causes only to transfer the funds to cryptocurrency accounts tied to the group,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said in a statement.