CARDIFF’S ISIS CASH LINK
AN AMERICAN businessman took payments from a Cardiff-based firm to finance an Islamic State (Isis) terror attack in the US.
Mohammed Elshinawy, 33, has been jailed for 20 years after he admitted accepting payments to support an attack by the terror group.
An American court heard Elshinawy, of Edgewood, Maryland, received payments totalling $8,700 (about £6,200) from a Welsh company.
According to a Department of Justice news release issued on March 30 “Elshinawy conspired with others to knowingly provide material support and resources to Isis”.
The statement continued: “From February 2015 through about December 11, 2015, in Maryland and elsewhere, Elshinawy conspired with others to provide material support and resources, including personnel, services (including means and methods of communication), and financial services, to Isis.
“Elshinawy and his co-conspirators utilised various methods of secret communication in order to conceal their criminal association and activities from law enforcement.
“As a part of the conspiracy Elshinawy expressed his support for an Islamic caliphate and his belief in the legitimacy of Isis.
“In addition he expressed his hope that Isis would be victorious and its enemies defeated and discussed his readiness to travel to live in the Islamic State.
“In various other conversations Elshinawy pledged his allegiance to Isis, described himself as its soldier, committed to making violent jihad, and asked that others convey his message of loyalty to Isis leadership.
“Elshinawy also received payments from a foreign company based in the United Kingdom. The payments, which totaled approximately $8,700, were to be used by Elshinawy to fund a terrorist attack in the United States.
“In interviews with FBI agents in July 2015, in an effort to conceal and minimise his criminal involvement with Isis, Elshinawy provided false information regarding the total amount of money he had received from Isis operatives and claimed his intent was to defraud Isis of funds.
Elshinawy will now serve 20 years in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release for conspiracy to support Isis, providing and attempting to provide support to Isis, terrorism financing, and making false statements in connection with a terrorism matter.
Last August FBI documents revealed Pontypridd businessman Siful Sujan financed Islamic State plots in the United States.
The 31-year-old, who left Wales for Syria in July 2014 and became a computer hacker for IS, was killed in an air strike near Raqqah in December 2015.
Following his death a Pentagon spokesman was quoted as saying the terror group had “lost a key link between networks”.
Sujan was alleged to have used companies based in Wales to send military-grade surveillance equipment to Spain and to an address in Turkey close to the Syrian border and to transfer money to an Isis supporter in the US.
FBI documents revealing the links were released following a court case in Baltimore, Maryland, last year.
Operated out of an office on the Alexandra Gate business park, Tremorfa, Ibacs Electronics Ltd (Ibacs) was directed by Sujan.
Filed in a US federal court in Baltimore, the FBI documents showed Elshinawy received $3,000 on May 14, 2015, from Ibacs.
FBI documents claim Elshinawy pretended to buy printers from Ibacs as cover through Paypal but no evidence of any printers was found.
The documents stated: “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.