FBI papers claim firm sent money to finance terror plots
FBI documents that allegedly show a group of Cardiff companies financing Islamic State terror plots in the US and shipping military-grade equipment offer a “rare” glimpse into terror financing, according to a leading academic.
The papers reveal that thousands of dollars were sent from a company registered in Ffordd Pengam to a man living in America to allegedly “conduct a terrorist attack”.
The FBI documents add that various surveillance equipment worth more than $18,000 was sent by two Cardiff registered companies, allegedly operated by the same people, across the world including to a Turkish town 20 miles from the Syrian border and to Madrid.
Director of the Crime and Security Research Institute at Cardiff University, Professor Martin Innes, said the case was “unusual” in the level of detail it revealed.
Prof Innes said: “The reason this case is important and interesting is because it does shed light on this mechanisms on how these things get done. It is rare.
“That level of detail [in the FBI documents] is unusual.”
Prof Innes said that “concrete” detail of how terrorism is allegedly funded is rare due to the complexity of investigations.
He added: “It is difficult to say how representative this case is because the whole area has been a bit murky for understandable reasons.
“There have always been suspicions of money moving around [the world]. They often remain suspicions.”
He added: “It’s a relatively large amount of money but you don’t have to have an awful lot now.
“The cost of terror attacks are coming down.”
Operated out of an office on the Alexandra Gate business park, Tremorfa, Ibacstel Electronics Ltd (Ibacs) was directed by a former Pontypridd businessman, Siful Sujan, who was killed by a US drone strike in Syria on December 10, 2015.
Filed in a US federal court in Baltimore, the FBI documents show that a Mohamed Elshinawy, of Maryland, US, received $3,000 on May 14, 2015, from Ibacs.
FBI documents claim that Elshinawy pretended to buy printers from Ibacs as cover through Paypal but that no evidence of any printers was found.
The documents state: “The first payment of $3,000 was sent to him from a company in the United Kingdom on May 14, 2015, via eBay/Paypal.
“Elshinawy showed the interviewing agents the eBay/Paypal receipt of transaction on his laptop computer, which identified the UK company sending the payment as a company called Ibacstel Electronics.”
In an interview with officers he later admitted that he was instructed to use the money for “operational purposes” which he understood to mean “causing destruction or conducting a terrorist attack in the US”, as stated in FBI documents.
A statement by the US Department of Justice on August 15 this year said Elshinawy had pleaded guilty to terror-related charges including providing material support to Isis terrorism financing after being arrested in 2015.
Computer specialist Sujan was described by the Pentagon as “a key link between networks” for Islamic States and was said to have worked as a hacker for them.
Colonel Steve Warren said: “Sujan supported Isil hacking efforts, anti-surveillance technology and weapons development.
“Now that he’s dead, Isil has lost a key link between networks.”
Sujan was killed in Raqqa weeks after former Cardiff schoolboy Reyaad Khan was killed in an RAF drone strike personally approved by then Prime Minister David Cameron.
The Penarth-born Cantonian High School student used social media to identify recruits and provided them with encouragement and instruction “on an unprecedented scale”.