As per recent reports, a federal court of the United States has sentenced a US citizen for 13 years. The woman named Zoobia Shahnaz was allegedly looking to fund more than $150,000 to the ISIS through Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
How did she finance ISIS?
Reports suggest that the woman frauded major banking corporations like American Express, Chase and Discover to execute the operation. She also captured loans and credit cards through fake identities. She then converted these funds to crypto before funneling those through Pakistan, China, AND Turkey to the ISIS.
Zoobia was originally arrested in the latter half of 2017 after she was stopped at JFK Airport, where she was on her way to Syria.
Shehnaz’s Defence
Her legal counsel stressed on the fact that she had been involved in aiding Syrian refugees via the Syrian American Medical Society. The counsel further stated, “Unlike the79 Americans identified in the study who traveled to Syria and/or Iraq since 2011 and affiliated with jihadist groups active in those countries, none were motivated by the same things that drove Zoobia Shahnaz. That is, a desire to heal the sick and care for the wounded.”
To sum it up, the court has considered all these factors and handed Shehnaz a 13 years sentence.
