A New York woman has been accused of laundering bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and wiring the money to help the so-called Islamic State.<\/p>\n
Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, was charged with bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering and is being held without bail.<\/p>\n
Ms Shahnaz was born in Pakistan and worked as a lab technician in the US.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say she took out fraudulent loans of $85,000 (\u00a363,000) in order to buy the bitcoin online.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin is an online currency. Despite not being legal tender – it can’t be used to pay for traditional goods and services – the value of bitcoin has rocketed this year.<\/p>\n
It has been exploited by criminals to launder money. British authorities are pushing to increase regulation of the currency.<\/p>\n
According to court records, Ms Shahnaz, who lives in Brentwood on Long Island, was a lab technician at a Manhattan hospital until June.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said that Ms Shahnaz obtained a Pakistani passport in July and booked a flight to Pakistan with a layover in Istanbul, intending to travel to Syria.<\/p>\n
She was arrested at John F Kennedy airport carrying $9,500 in cash, just under the limit of $10,000 that a person can legally take out of the country without declaring the funds.<\/p>\n
Searches of her electronic devices showed numerous searches for Islamic State-related material.<\/p>\n
Ms Shahnaz faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the money laundering charges and up to 30 years for the bank fraud charge.<\/p>\n
Her lawyer, Steve Zissou, said she was sending money overseas to help Syrian refugees.<\/p>\n
“What she saw made her devoted to lessening the suffering of a lot of the Syrian refugees and everything she does is for that purpose,” Mr Zissou said outside the courthouse.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"