In brief
- Virginia man Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa was sentenced to 30 years in jail for funding ISIS with crypto, the DOJ said.
- He sent over $185,000 in crypto to female ISIS members in Syria to aid prison breaks, according to the agency.
- Prosecutors said he used social media and encrypted apps to collect and launder funds.
A Virginia man who funneled crypto to a militant group via encrypted chats and hand-collected donations was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in federal prison for supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa was convicted last December on five felony counts, including conspiracy and multiple attempts to provide material support to ISIS.
Between 2019 and 2022, Chhipa raised more than $185,000 through social media platforms, encrypted communications, and in-person collections, then converted the funds to crypto and routed them to Syria via Turkey, according to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) statement.
Much of the funds were directed to female ISIS members in detention camps, with the goal of financing prison escapes and supporting fighters embedded across Syria, the agency said.
“This defendant directly financed ISIS in its efforts to commit vile terrorist atrocities against innocent citizens,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This sentence sends a clear message: if you fund terrorism, we will find you.”
Chhipa’s primary co-conspirator was a British-born ISIS member residing in Syria, who coordinated financial transfers intended for tactical support and militant recruitment.
The pair leveraged crypto as a cross-border tool for obfuscating transactions that might otherwise trigger banking flags, according to the Justice Department’s December trial statement.
The FBI Washington Field Office led the Chhipa investigation, with support from the DOJ’s National Security Division. His primary co-conspirator remains at large in Syria.
“Whether you are a fighter or send money, these activities are illegal and against the national security interests of the United States,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.
Chhipa’s case follows a broader DOJ campaign that began gaining steam in 2020, when U.S. authorities announced the single-largest seizure of terrorism-linked crypto to date.
The effort targeted digital wallets used by ISIS, Hamas’s military wing, and al-Qaeda operatives, many of whom promoted Bitcoin donations on social media as “untraceable” and intended for “violent causes.”
More than 300 crypto accounts, four websites, and four Facebook pages were dismantled in that operation.
“Terrorist networks have adapted to technology, conducting complex financial transactions in the digital world,” then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the time.
In March, the Justice Department seized more than $200,000 in crypto linked to Hamas, describing the network as one that had laundered over $1.5 million since late 2024 through a series of wallets and encrypted channels.
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