LI Woman Sentenced To Prison For Supporting ISIS

BRENTWOOD, NY - A Brentwood woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday for providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and attempting to fly to Syria to join the group in 2017, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Between March 2017 and July 2017, Zoobia Shahnaz, 30, defrauded numerous financial institutions to obtain money for ISIS, including a loan of $22,500. She also fraudulently obtained more than a dozen credit cards and used them to purchase $62,000 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies online. She then made multiple wire transfers totaling more than $150,000 to individuals and entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for ISIS.

Feds found that 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 held her gain entry into Syria. After court-authorized search warrants were executed at Shahnaz’s home on Long Island, police seized terrorist and jihad-related propaganda, including a photograph of a suicide belt of explosives and a night vision scope.

On July 31, 2017, Shahnaz was stopped at John F. Kennedy International Airport while trying to board a flight with a layover in Istanbul, Turkey – a common point of entry for individuals travelling from western countries to join ISIS in Syria when she was arrested.

In 2018, as part of her plea agreement with the government, Shahnaz admitted to defrauding numerous financial institutions and laundering the stolen proceeds out of the country with the intent to support a specified unlawful activity, namely the provision of material support to ISIS, after which she attempted to leave the United States and travel to Syria. She was sentenced in federal court in Central Islip, by United States District Judge Joanna Seybert.