Maryland man who was arrested for receiving nearly $9,000 from ISIS says he just wanted to scam them

  • 8 years ago
BALTIMORE — A 30-year-old Maryland man who received thousands of dollars from the Islamic State purportedly to wage an attack on U.S. soil was arrested on Friday.

According to a press release published on Monday by the U.S. Department of Justice, Edgewood, Maryland resident Mohamed Elshinawy received at least $8,700 from Islamic State contacts in Syria and Egypt and used the money to buy communication tools, including a laptop, phones, and call cards.

A criminal complaint filed in the District Court of Maryland and published by Buzzfeed states that Elshinawy caught the FBI's attention after he received a money transfer from an individual in Egypt who was being monitored by the agency.

The complaint said Elshinawy admitted to receiving money from ISIS after being shown the transfer records from Western Union and PayPal during an interrogation. He told authorities he was not planning to carry out an attack and simply intended to scam money out of the militant group.

The FBI traced his social media communication and discovered that he pledged allegiance to ISIS in February this year and wanted to die as a martyr, according to the complaint. He was subsequently charged on a federal criminal complaint for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, according to an FBI press release published on Monday.

Reuters reports that more than 70 people have been arrested by U.S. authorities for suspected ties to ISIS since 2014.

----------------------------------------­­---------------------

Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.

Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f

Get top stories delivered to your inbox everyday: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter

Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/
Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus