US woman used bitcoin to move cash to Islamic State, police say
A New York woman has been accused of laundering bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and wiring the money to help the so-called Islamic State. Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, was charged with bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering and is being held without bail.
Ms Shahnaz was born in Pakistan and worked as a lab technician in the US. Prosecutors say she took out fraudulent loans of $85,000 (£63,000) in order to buy the bitcoin online.
From the DoJ press release:
"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," stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. "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."
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Saturday December 16 2017, @12:01AM (1 child)
I confirmed that your quote from Business Insider [businessinsider.com] was accurate:
Can't we at least get a whole week's data on this? If it was 67% of Thursday's investigations, that's one thing. What about Wedneday? Or even last weekend?
Okay, The New York Times [nytimes.com] (which is what BI was paraphrasing) says:
That makes a bit more sense. Perhaps our editors could offer some help to Business Insider. It seems like they could use it.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @07:02PM
That shows more competence than I've come to expect from out anti-terrorist activities.