Americans accused of supporting and elevating cash for ISIS

Washington  — Three Americans and a Canadian have been charged with offering materials help to the Islamic State (ISIS), the Justice Department introduced Thursday, accusing them of fundraising for the terrorist group and utilizing deceptive and covert communications and posts to keep away from scrutiny.

Federal prosecutors within the Eastern District of New York allege Mohammad David Hashimi of Virginia, Abdullah At Taqi of New York, Seema Rahman of New Jersey and Khalilullah Yousuf of Ontario, Canada, labored with an unnamed “facilitator” apparently linked to ISIS’ central media group to garner monetary help for the terrorist group utilizing Bitcoin and fundraising websites like GoFundMe. 

According to the prison grievance unsealed this week, the defendants allegedly labored in varied methods to boost greater than $35,000 price of cryptocurrency and different financial donations. In many circumstances, investigators say, the ISIS facilitator instructed the defendants and their associates to submit pretend campaigns and create false causes for his or her initiatives “in order to deceive” and keep away from scrutiny. 

The fundraising web site accounts they used seem to have been purposely deceptive and didn’t point out what the funds could be truly used for, one marketing campaign even studying, “Help raise funds for some needy families for Eid,” courtroom paperwork say. Other pages learn, “Widow in Need of Assistance” and “Ramadan Appeal for Gaza,” apparently to maintain investigators from discovering their function. 

Hashimi and Yousuf are accused of being a part of an encrypted group chat with supporters of ISIS and “other groups that adhere to similar violent jihadist ideologies.”  As early as April 2021, an unnamed member of the chat wrote, “post all serious donation links that helps our mujahideen…”For security purpose, submit simply the hyperlinks with out telling for what the cash is getting used.” 

In response, prosecutors allege Yousuf posted in the same chat a Bitcoin address controlled by the ISIS facilitator, writing, “If anybody desires to donate to precise mujahideen within the battlefield…Thisbrother is legit^^^.”

Charging paperwork allege the cash raised by the group was for people preventing on behalf of ISIS. The charging paperwork additionally alleged that in January, Taqi mentioned that he initially contributed funds to somebody who was killed. 

“All we really need is maybe like 100,000 fighters and biidhnillah the Muslims could conquer the world cause most of our enemies are cowards,” Taqi allegedly wrote through an encrypted messaging platform with a confidential human supply who investigators say had been working with them since October 2021. 

The confidential human supply and the unnamed ISIS facilitator went on to speak steadily and on June 8, 2022, the supply requested the facilitator to show the cash was being raised for precise ISIS members. The facilitator responded with a picture depicting weapons, together with what seem like grenades, laid out on an ISIS flag. 

“I am responsible for the donations that come to a country and I transfer them to the Mujahideen in all the states,” the unnamed ISIS middleman allegedly advised the FBI’s human supply. 

Investigators allege Hashimi’s phrases and social media posts indicated his “support for ISIS and extremist causes,” at one level telling one other he could be keen to “die on the battlefield.” And in a sequence of messages, Rahman advised Hashimi that her mother and father have been “threatening to report both of them” for his or her alleged conduct. 

“I obviously don’t want to go to jail either,” she allegedly wrote to Hashimi, and in one other occasion imploring, “Can you help me plan…I am a térrörist to them.”

Hashimi, Taqi and Rahman have been arrested Wednesday in Virginia, New York, and New Jersey, respectively, the Justice Department mentioned, and Yousuf was additionally arrested on Dec. 14 by Canadian regulation enforcement on the request of the U.S.

“The accusations in this complaint, while extremely serious in nature, are nonetheless just that, accusations. As it currently stands, Ms. Rahman is, and remains, innocent until proven guilty. To that end, she looks forward to her day in Court,” Rahman’s lawyer, Jeff Greco, mentioned in an announcement to CBS News. She intends to enter a plea of not responsible. 

Taqi’s public defender declined to remark. 

A authorized consultant for Hashimi couldn’t instantly be recognized.