A Us federal courtroom has sentenced a U.S. citizen to 13 years in jail for laundering money for ISIS using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Per a Department of Justice announcement on March 13, Zoobia Shahnaz of Long Island received a 13-yr sentence for working to fund the Islamic Land of Republic of iraq and al-Sham through cryptocurrency payments amounting to over $150,000. She also worked to movement to Syrian arab republic to become a member of ISIS.

Fraudulent loans for financing

To raise the funds, Shahnaz allegedly defrauded major banks including American Limited, Hunt and Discover, co-ordinate to the original indictment from December 2022.

The United States declared that Shahnaz secured loans and credit cards under simulated pretenses, which she used to purchase cryptocurrencies that she funneled through Pakistan, Communist china and Turkey and eventually to ISIS.

As Cointelegraph reported, Shahnaz was on her way to Syria in July of 2022 when officials prevented her from boarding a flight at JFK Drome in New York Metropolis. She was later on arrested later in the twelvemonth.

Motives: Medical aid for Syrian refugees

Shahnaz pleaded guilty to the charges back in November 2022. In requesting a below-guidelines sentence in a sentencing memorandum earlier in March, Shahnaz's legal counsel leaned on her historic period — she was born in 1990 — too every bit her work volunteering with Syrian refugees via the Syrian American Medical Society.

The sentencing memorandum continued to highlight Shahnaz's history of charitable work:

"Dissimilar the79 Americans identified in the study who traveled to Syria and/or Republic of iraq since 2022 and affiliated with jihadist groups active in those countries, none were motivated by the aforementioned things that drove Zoobia Shahnaz. That is, a desire to heal the sick and treat the wounded."

Given that the five counts against her could accept garnered her 110 years backside bars rather than xiii, the defense force's strategy may take worked.