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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Md. Man Charged With Involvement With ISIL

(CN) - A Maryland man has been charged with attempting to provide material support to Islamic State terrorist and of accepting money earmarked for a terror attack here in the United States, the Justice Department announced.

Mohamed Elshinawy, 30, was arrested on Dec. 11, and was scheduled to make an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Gesner in a Baltimore courtroom on Monday.

In an affidavit filed in Federal Court, prosecutors say the FBI because aware in June of an individual who was attempting to send money to the United States for unknown, but potential foul, reasons. An investigations led agents to Elshinawy, who was wired $1,000 from Egypt on June 28, 2015.

Agents interviewed Elshinawy on July 17, but according to court documents, he initially denied any association with the Islamic State, instead claiming the money had been sent to him by his mother and used to buy an iPhone for a friend.

He later allegedly admitted a friend had contacted him months earlier to connect him, though social media, with an unidentified member of the terror organization.

Investigators said Elshinawy later confessed to receiving $4,000 in two payments for "operational purposes." But Elshinawy claimed he never intended to carry out an attack, but was instead, trying to get money from ISIS.

Prosecutors allege Elshinawy actually concealed an additional $3,500 he received from ISIS operatives through his PayPal account between March and June 2015.

According to the affidavit, Elshinawy used multiple email accounts, pay-as-you-go phones, and social media, under various aliases, to communicate with Islamic State members.

Many of these communications where filed with jihadist rhetoric and terrorist-related propaganda, the Justice Department said.

In addition to the charges directly related to his alleged contacts with the Islamic State, Elshinawy was also charged with obstructing agency proceedings, making false statements, and falsifying or concealing material facts.

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