The trial began this week for Virginia man Mohammed Chhipa, who prosecutors say immigrated to the United States from India but is now a naturalized citizen who has lived in Virginia since 2008 and faces charges related to the alleged transfer of Bitcoin to a Syrian member of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group through an intermediary in Turkey.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Chhipa converted over $74,000 into Bitcoin that was then transferred to ISIS members in Syria, according to Fox 5 DC, with the outlet reporting an undercover FBI agent testifying conversations about Chhipa (pictured above) sending the money happened alongside others about suicide bombings.
In their May 2023 indictment, prosecutors claim Chhipa made a series of social media posts expressing sympathy with ISIS beginning in 2019, leading to a series of conversations with an undercover FBI agent who ultimately connected Chhipa to an ISIS member in an encrypted text chat.
During this conversation, Chhipa allegedly expressed an interest in sending money an ISIS member said would be “set aside for the [brothers].” He later sent the ISIS member a combination of his own money and money that was given to him by the undercover agent, according to the indictment.
Defense attorneys depicted Chhipa as a “lonely, sad” man who was entrapped by the federal government, Fox 5 DC reported.
While Chhipa was arrested in 2023, his trial comes as rebel forces linked to ISIS take control of Syria, as the leader of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militia group, which successfully toppled the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, is led by Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who is tied to both ISIS and al-Qaeda.
The terrorist leader emerged fighting with al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to The Associated Press, before the terrorist group sent him to Syria to establish the affiliated Nusra Front. When ISIS emerged during the civil war in Syria, it was initially reported that the Nusra Front merged with the terrorist group, though al-Golani later publicly broke with ISIS.
With the decline of both ISIS and al-Qaeda, AP reported that al-Golani rebranded his terrorist group as HTS, which he claimed has “no affiliation to any external entity.”
According to the May 2023 indictment, Chhipa specifically sought to provide money to smuggle people out of the Al Hawl Internally Displaced Persons Camp, located in a part of Syria controlled by the Kurdish, U.S.-aligned, Syrian Democratic Forces. The government claims that the area contains a significant number of people sympathetic to ISIS.
Reuters reported this group reached a ceasefire with al-Golani’s Turkey-backed forces on Tuesday.
Chhipa’s trial for allegedly providing money to ISIS comes as two former George Mason University students were revealed to own firearms and flags supporting Hamas and Hezbollah on Monday.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
