Dec. 16 (UPI) — A Virginia man faces decades in prison after being convicted of providing ISIS “material support” via a crypto financial scheme, the U.S. government announced on Monday.
According to a release, 35-year-old Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa, of Springfield was convicted Friday by a jury in Virginia on charges stemming from allegations that he gave support in various different forms to the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or more commonly known as ISIS.
He is expected to be sentenced on May 5 by a federal judge.
Chhipa is an Indian national who later became a U.S. citizen. He was arrested in May of last year in a warrant signed by U.S. District Judge Lindsey R. Vaala of the Eastern District of Virginia, according to court filings.
Over the course of the conspiracy, it was alleged he sent more than $185,000 in cryptocurrency to ISIS.
He was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and four counts of providing or attempting to provide material support or resources to a “designated foreign terrorist organization.”
Chhipa faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison per count.
The FBI investigated the case within its various branches by different officials.
His primary co-conspirator was a British-born ISIS member residing in Syria who was involved in raising funds for prison escapes, terrorist attacks and other ISIS fighters, the Justice Department said.
The jury found that, from at least October 2019 through October 2022, Chhipa collected and sent money to female members of ISIS in Syria for the benefit of the terror syndicate by financing the escape of female ISIS members from prison camps and by supporting its terrorists, according to court records and evidence presented at trial.
He would allegedly raise funds online via various social media accounts and receive electronic transfers and travel hundreds of miles to also collect by hand. DOJ says Chhipa then would convert the money to cryptocurrency and send to others in Turkey, where it was smuggled to ISIS members in Syria.
That nation recently saw a relatively bloodless revolution and the Assad regime’s downfall after five decades.