Virginia man convicted of funneling money to Islamic State group
Associated PressALEXANDRIA, Va. — A northern Virginia man targeted by an FBI sting operation has been convicted on terrorism charges for collecting funds on behalf of the Islamic State group. Prosecutors said Chhipa met several times with an undercover FBI operative who gave him hundreds of dollars on multiple occasions in 2021 and 2022, earmarked for a Syrian woman and Islamic State group member known as Umm Dujanah. Prosecutors alleged that bank records showed that Chhipa sent more than $74,000 to the Islamic State group in a similar fashion — collecting donations personally from supporters, converting the cash into bitcoin and sending it to bank accounts in Turkey for use by the group. Chhipa was particularly interested in sending funds to help women from the Islamic State group escape prison camps to which they had been sent after the terrorist group was routed from territory it held in Iraq and Syria, prosecutors said in the trial’s opening statements.
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