The post Crypto Trail Lands Virginia Man 30-Year Sentence for Funding ISIS appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

In brief Virginia man Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa was sentenced to 30 years in jail for funding ISIS with crypto, the DOJ said. He sent over $185,000 in crypto to female ISIS members in Syria to aid prison breaks, according to the agency. Prosecutors said he used social media and encrypted apps to collect and launder funds. A Virginia man who funneled crypto to a militant group via encrypted chats and hand-collected donations was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in federal prison for supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa was convicted last December on five felony counts, including conspiracy and multiple attempts to provide material support to ISIS. Between 2019 and 2022, Chhipa raised more than $185,000 through social media platforms, encrypted communications, and in-person collections, then converted the funds to crypto and routed them to Syria via Turkey, according to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) statement. Much of the funds were directed to female ISIS members in detention camps, with the goal of financing prison escapes and supporting fighters embedded across Syria, the agency said. “This defendant directly financed ISIS in its efforts to commit vile terrorist atrocities against innocent citizens,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This sentence sends a clear message: if you fund terrorism, we will find you.” Chhipa’s primary co-conspirator was a British-born ISIS member residing in Syria, who coordinated financial transfers intended for tactical support and militant recruitment. The pair leveraged crypto as a cross-border tool for obfuscating transactions that might otherwise trigger banking flags, according to the Justice Department’s December trial statement. The FBI Washington Field Office led the Chhipa investigation, with support from the DOJ’s National Security Division. His primary co-conspirator remains at large in Syria. “Whether you are a fighter or…

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Filed under: News - @ May 9, 2025 2:23 pm