U.S. woman learns her fate for funding ISIS

ISIS fighters

A woman who admitted funding ISIS with some $150,000 has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.

Zoobia Shahnaz appeared in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York, and was sentenced by Judge Joanna Seybert.

Shahnaz was in court for "providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically more than $150,000 to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, and attempting to travel to Syria to join ISIS," the prosecutors said.

She had admitted the charges.

The prosecutors explained: "As set forth in court filings and facts presented at the sentencing hearing, between March 2017 and July 2017, Shahnaz defrauded numerous financial institutions to obtain money for ISIS, including a loan for approximately $22,500. Shahnaz also fraudulently obtained more than a dozen credit cards and used them to purchase approximately $62,000 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies online. Shahnaz then made multiple wire transfers totaling more than $150,000 to individuals and entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for ISIS."

She was arrested in 2017 at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport while trying to board a flight with a layover in Istanbul, Turkey, a common jumping off point for those who are traveling from Western countries to join ISIS.

The prosecutors said: "Shahnaz accessed ISIS violent jihad-related websites and message boards, and social media and messaging pages of known ISIS recruiters, facilitators and financiers. She also performed numerous internet searches for information that would facilitate her entry into Syria."

Investigators, using search warrants for her Long Island home, found and seized jihad-related propaganda, including a photograph of a suicide belt with explosives.