Islamic State allegedly used PayPal and fake eBay transactions to channel money to an operative in the US, The Wall Street Journal reports. The man who allegedly received the money was American citizen Mohamed Elshinawy, who was arrested last year in Maryland. The FBI claims that Elshinawy, in his early 30s, sold computer printers on eBay as a front in order to receive the payments through PayPal.
The details have come to light because of a recently unsealed FBI affidavit, which alleges Elshinawy was part of a worldwide network that used such channels to fund ISIS. Elshinawy received $8,700 from ISIS, including five PayPal payments from senior ISIS official Siful Sujan through his technology company. Those funds were used to buy a laptop, a cellphone, and a VPN to communicate with IS, according to the affidavit. Sujan was killed in a drone strike in 2015.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/11/16130154/islamic-state-ebay-paypal-money-us
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @12:41PM (1 child)
It's a bad idea to use PayPal, which is notorious for freezing your account for no reason and indefinitely.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @12:50PM
Link is paywalled at WSJ, I think I found the same text here?
https://grassfire.com/islamic-state-global-financial-network-discovered-on-ebay-feds-alleged-jihadists-used-fake-listing-to-fund-terror-attacks/ [grassfire.com]
If the amounts discussed are correct, it looks like these operations are being run on a shoestring...