New York woman charged with funneling $150K to ISIS — including $85K in bitcoin
Dec 15, 2017 3:30 pm
As the value of bitcoin continues to rise, people are finding new ways to use — and abuse — the digital currency. Prosecutors charged 27-year-old Zoobia Shahnaz of Brentwood, New York, with supplying the Islamic State with more than $150,000, including $85,000 that she allegedly laundered via bitcoin.
Shahnaz reportedly used more than a dozen credit cards and borrowed money to send funds to the terrorist group.
According to a report Thursday from the Department of Justice, the Long Island woman, who was born in Pakistan and worked as a lab technician, faces charges of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering to support a foreign terrorist organization, money laundering to conceal proceeds of unlawful activity and money laundering to avoid transaction reporting requirements. She is being held without bail.
If convicted, Shahnaz could see 30 years in prison for the bank fraud charge and 20 years on each money laundering count.
The Department of Justice report said Shahnaz “engaged in a pattern of financial activity, culminating in several wire transactions, totaling over $150,000, to individuals and apparent shell entities in Pakistan, China, and Turkey.”
The report continued: “These transactions were designed to avoid transaction reporting requirements, conceal the identity, source and destination of the illicitly obtained monies, and, ultimately, benefit ISIS.”
Police stopped her at John F. Kennedy International Airport as she attempted to board a flight to Islamabad, Pakistan, with a layover in Istanbul. Officials suspect that she planned to enter Syria by crossing the Turkish border, according to the Department of Justice document.
Bridget Rohde, acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, used the occasion to tell the court that financial crimes that assist terrorist organizations are themselves acts of terrorism.
The court also heard from William F. Sweeney, Jr., assistant director-in-charge at the FBI.
“Syria is a perilous and violent war-torn country, but the subject in this investigation was allegedly so determined to assist ISIS that she planned a covert, illegal entry into Syria,” Sweeney said. “On top of which, she allegedly tried to launder virtual currency to bolster terrorists’ dwindling financial support. The FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force kept this woman from her dangerous and potentially deadly goal. We will do all we can to stop the next person hoping to do the same. We want to thank our law enforcement partners, Suffolk County Police Department, with whom we worked this case side-by-side.”
The cryptocurrency just had its first confirmed bitcoin billionaires in early December, and early Friday morning, an Italian woman was jailed in Copenhagen, Denmark, for ordering a hit on her boyfriend via bitcoin.
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