Terrorists used eBay to funnel cash to the United States.
A global financial network for ISIS used fake eBay transactions to send an American money for terror operations, a recently unsealed FBI affidavit showed. U.S. law enforcement officials uncovered the network after a lengthy investigation.
Mohamed Elshinawy, a U.S. citizen in his early 30’s, was arrested in Maryland in 2016 for his role in a scheme that stretched from Britain to Bangladesh, according to the Wall Street Journal. The financial network was directed by a now-deceased senior ISIS official in Syria, Siful Sujan.
Elshinawy pledged allegiance to ISIS and posted fake eBay listings for printers as cover to receive payments over Paypal for “operational purposes,” like a potential terror attack, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Since 9/11, the U.S. government and other countries have strictly monitored the international banking system to prevent the funding of terror operations. The eBay tactic suggests the creative lengths ISIS and other terrorist groups will go to skirt regulators.
According to the Wall Street Journal, ISIS operatives have small sums of money over less scrutinized financial channels, such as student-loan withdrawals or crowdfunding on social media.
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