WASHINGTON — A Maryland man is facing charges after the FBI says he pledged his support for ISIL, received thousands of dollars from the terrorist group and attempted to support it.
The FBI arrested 30-year-old Mohamed Elshinawy — an Edgewood, Maryland, resident — on Dec. 11 after an investigation found he was supporting the terrorist group and misleading the FBI.
An affidavit filed in federal court says that in June 2015, the FBI learned of someone in Egypt sending money to an individual in the U.S. — possibly for nefarious purposes. The investigation found that it Elshinawy who was wire transferred $1,000.
When the FBI questioned Elshinawy in July, he told officers that the money came from his mother and was intended for an iPhone purchase for a friend.
Later, he admitted a childhood friend had contacted him a few months earlier to connect him, through social media, with an unidentified member of ISIL.
Elshinawy says he received a total of $4,000 in two payments and that the ISIL operative instructed him to use the money for “operational purposes” — which Elshinawy says he understood to mean conducting a terrorist attack in the U.S.
Later in July, he told the FBI he had not received any more money from the terrorist organization, but later recalled receiving another payment of $1,200 from ISIL.
A FBI review of PayPal records showed that Elshinawy allegedly concealed at least $3,500 of $7,700 that he received from ISIL operatives through his PayPal account between March and June 2015.
Elshinawy told the FBI he never intended to carry out an attack and was only trying to get money from ISIL.
Elshinawy is charged with attempted to provide material support for ISIL, obstructing of agency proceedings, and making false statements and falsifying or concealing material facts.
Elshinawy was formally charged Monday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
