Ontario man among four people accused of raising funds to support Islamic State terror group

An Ontario man is one of the four people charged in the U.S. for allegedly raising funds to support the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

In a news release issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice, it said that the four accused allegedly collected more than US$35,000 through cryptocurrency and other crowdsourcing campaigns and transferred the proceeds to Bitcoin wallets and accounts, which were believed to be funding the terrorist group.

On Wednesday, a criminal complaint against the four accused was unsealed in a federal court in New York, revealing their identities and what led to their arrest.

They are 35-year-old Mohammad David Hashimi from Virginia, Abdullah At Taqi from New York, 25-year-old Seema Rahman from New Jersey and 34-year-old Khalilullah Yousuf from Ontario.

They were charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The DOJ said Yousuf was arrested on Wednesday by Canadian law enforcement under a provisional arrest from the U.S.

“These defendants promoted the violent extremism of ISIS by pretending to raise money for humanitarian causes only to transfer the funds to cryptocurrency accounts tied to the group,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in the release.

“These arrests show the Justice Department’s unwavering commitment to bringing to justice all those who would help terrorist organization threaten harm to our people.”

In the unsealed documents, it is alleged that Yousuf and Hashimi were part of a group chat referred to as Group Chat-1 on an encrypted social media and mobile messaging electronic communication service that helped connect IS supporters and other groups that adhered to similar violent ideologies.

It is further alleged that members of the group chat discussed in April 2021 about posting donation links disguised for humanitarian causes but were really intended to assist “mujahideen,” an Arabic term used by IS supporters to refer to IS fighters.

Yousuf allegedly provided a link to a specific Bitcoin address while another member of the group chat posted a link to a PayPal campaign. The two accounts were allegedly controlled by an individual referred to in the documents as Facilitator-1.

According to a confidential source who spoke to Facilitator-1 and one of the accused, Facilitator-1 allegedly told them that the descriptions in the fundraising campaigns were a “deception for the infidels” and the “words that are in the link are fake in order to deceive.”

When the source asked for proof that the money was being donated to IS fighters, Facilitator-1 allegedly sent screenshots and a video showing tactical gear, ammunition and grenades on top of an IS flag.

According to the documents, the four accused raised and contributed more than US$35,000 to Facilitator-1 through a combination of cryptocurrency and other sources between Feb. 2021 and July 2022.

Yousuf allegedly contributed $20,347.89 to the Bitcoin campaign. The Ontario man also allegedly created multiple GoFundMe campaigns with one of the other accused, misrepresenting them for charitable causes.

“As alleged, this crowdfunding network used cryptocurrency, Bitcoin wallets, GoFundMe and PayPal to collect and raise blood money to support ISIS, not for needy families as they falsely claimed in their attempt to deceive law enforcement,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York in the news release.

“I commend our prosecutors and the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force for piercing the veil of secrecy to identify the perpetrators of this scheme, reveal the true evil nature of these virtual money transfers, and bring to justice those who seek to enable acts of violent extremism.”

Meanwhile, it is also alleged that one of the accused, Hashimi made statements suggesting that he wanted to die in combat or a terrorist attack on behalf of a foreign terrorist group.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

The DOJ said the charges the defendants are facing could carry a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in prison if they are convicted.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is continuing to probe the case.

“These arrests show the FBI and our partners will not tolerate those who attempt to raise money to fund ISIS or any other terrorist group,” said Assistant Director Robert R. Wells of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.

“According to the complaint, these individuals allegedly made fundraising appeals for charitable donations to humanitarian causes and did not reveal how they planned to use the money. The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate and hold accountable those who try to assist terrorists.”

Canada has labelled the Islamic State as a terrorist entity.