Hisham Chaudhary has been found guilty of funding a known terrorist organization, IS (Islamic State), with Bitcoin (BTC). The 28-year-old sales consultant hails from the United Kingdom, specifically from Leicestershire, and was discovered to have been discreetly sending funds to terrorists who are stationed within the Middle East. As of now, Hisham will be required to wait till the 3rd of this upcoming September in order to be sentenced.
Terrorist financing via crypto has been a problem for the industry for some time, along with other undesirable activities such as money laundering and Ponzi schemes. Due to the rise of these fraudulent and often dangerous operations, governments all over the world are left with little choice but to tighten regulations and adopt a more stringent attitude towards cryptocurrency investors and companies.
In related news, a man by the name of Jason Siesser was caught trying to use a chemical weapon to kill up to 300 people after buying the weapon with BTC from the Dark Web. A Swedish resident named Roger Karlsson was also caught running a Ponzi scheme where he successfully stole $16 million in Bitcoin.
Financing terrorism
BBC News had revealed that Hisham had been found guilty under Birmingham’s Crown Court for the aforementioned supply of Bitcoin being provided to the Islamic State terrorist organization, and he was additionally charged with spreading extremist propaganda online as well. The report indicated that the sales consultant had generated thousands of U.K pounds before making the conversion to BTC. It had also been discovered that he had transferred the amount in the hopes of liberating ISIS supporters currently being held captive in Syria.
Naturally, Hisham had denied all of the accusations while also claiming that he only acted based on a purely ‘humanitarian purpose.’ Shortly afterward, his defense came to naught when a type of ‘jihad’ video had been played by the prosecution and how Hisham had knowingly spread this kind of terrorist propaganda with ill intent online.
To seal Hisham’s fate, police officers had even discovered devices in the sales consultant’s home which contained records of IS propaganda.Â
IS holds Bitcoin
There had been numerous reports in 2020 which seemed to suggest that IS may, in fact, have been storing Bitcoin worth up to $300 million. Chainalysis was quick to nip this theory in the bud, however, as it is well-known that terrorists like to use cash to carry out operations.
Furthermore, the software company added that due to the nature of crypto, it is incredibly unlikely that it will be considered as a desirable storage mechanism as far as illicit funds may be concerned.
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