Isil leader used ebay to send cash to UK jihadists, claims FBI

A SENIOR Isil leader killed in a drone strike used ebay to funnel money to operatives living in Britain and the US, according to allegations contained in a newly unsealed FBI affidavit.

It is claimed that Cardiffbased Siful Sujan, a highranking Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant official whose tech company was at the centre of the alleged multinational operation, sent funds to the individuals using fake transactions online.

One alleged recipient named in the indictment is Mohamed Elshinawy, who is accused of pretending to sell computer printers in order to receive money from Sujan and other Isil figures.

Elshinawy received a total of $8,700 (£6,700) from individuals associated with the terrorist group, according to the affidavit, including five payments through Paypal from Sujan’s company.

The American citizen, believed to be in his 30s, used the funds to buy a laptop, a mobile phone and a VPN to communicate with Sujan, who is thought to have left the UK for Syria some time in 2014 and was killed in a drone strike in 2015.

Sujan, of Bangladeshi descent, was a leading figure in the militants’ hacking campaign and their efforts to defeat surveillance and tracking by Western spy agencies. The 31-year-old became one of the group’s most valued tech experts when he replaced Junaid Hussain, another leading Isil hacker from Britain, also killed in an air strike.

Elshinawy was arrested in Maryland a year ago following an FBI investigation and is now in federal custody awaiting trial, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing the 2016 indictment.

He admitted that he was told to use the funds for terrorist attacks in the US, but claimed he never planned to carry one out.

The FBI says it learned Eshinawy was part of a global Isil network that operated from the UK to Bangladesh.

Other unnamed alleged operatives have reportedly been arrested.

Some of the key players in the alleged network, which also bought military-grade surveillance equipment that could be used for aerial targeting, were arrested or killed in a coordinated global sweep in December 2015.

An ebay spokesman said it had “zero tolerance for criminal activity on our marketplace and we worked with law enforcement to bring this individual to justice”.

The number of operatives thought involved makes it one of the most significant suspected Isil financial networks yet uncovered.