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A Springfield man will serve more than three decades in prison for his reported efforts to collect and send funds to the Islamic State group.
Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa, 35, was sentenced to 30 years and four months in prison Wednesday by a U.S. District Court judge in Alexandria after a jury convicted him in December on multiple charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization.
“Those who fund and facilitate terror bear the same responsibility as those who carry out attacks,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert said in a press release from the Department of Justice. “Mohammed Chhipa knowingly and persistently collected and provided a considerable amount of money to fund the violence of an organization bent on forcing their extremist ideology on others. That he did so from a nation that holds individual freedom sacrosanct is unconscionable.”
According to prosecutors, Chhipa sent more than $185,000 to members of the Islamic State group from October 2019 through October of 2022.
The militant group, which has been known by a variety of names, including ISIS or ISIL, operates in Iraq and Syria with fighters around the world, even after U.S.-backed forces in both countries declared victory after reclaiming territory in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., the Islamic State group is known for its violent tactics and was recently connected to a truck-ramming attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day that killed 14 people.
According to the DOJ, Chhipa solicited donations for the Islamic State group through social media with the goal of supporting its fighters and helping female members escape prison camps. After collecting the funds either electronically or in person, he converted the cash to bitcoin and transferred it to bank accounts in Turkey, where it was then smuggled to militants in Syria.
Chhipa was ultimately arrested after meeting an undercover FBI agent multiple times in 2021 and 2022 to accept funds “earmarked for a Syrian woman and Islamic State group member known as Umm Dujanah,” the Associated Press reported from the weeklong trial in December.
According to the AP, lawyers representing Chhipa argued during the trial that the FBI’s operation followed a decade of baseless investigation and “played on his clear desire to find a wife by using undercover operatives who, among other ruses, pretended to be marriage brokers or even a willing bride.”
Chhipa was convicted of one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization and four counts of providing and attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
When announcing the sentencing yesterday, FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven Jensen said the funds that Chhipa raised for the Islamic State group “could have been used to enable terrorist operations and attacks targeting innocent U.S. citizens at home and abroad.”
“Today’s sentencing underscores the FBI’s commitment to severing these streams of funding and keeping the American people safe,” he said.
Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa, 35, was sentenced to 30 years and four months in prison Wednesday by a U.S. District Court judge in Alexandria after a jury convicted him in December on multiple charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization.
“Those who fund and facilitate terror bear the same responsibility as those who carry out attacks,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert said in a press release from the Department of Justice. “Mohammed Chhipa knowingly and persistently collected and provided a considerable amount of money to fund the violence of an organization bent on forcing their extremist ideology on others. That he did so from a nation that holds individual freedom sacrosanct is unconscionable.”
According to prosecutors, Chhipa sent more than $185,000 to members of the Islamic State group from October 2019 through October of 2022.
The militant group, which has been known by a variety of names, including ISIS or ISIL, operates in Iraq and Syria with fighters around the world, even after U.S.-backed forces in both countries declared victory after reclaiming territory in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., the Islamic State group is known for its violent tactics and was recently connected to a truck-ramming attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day that killed 14 people.
According to the DOJ, Chhipa solicited donations for the Islamic State group through social media with the goal of supporting its fighters and helping female members escape prison camps. After collecting the funds either electronically or in person, he converted the cash to bitcoin and transferred it to bank accounts in Turkey, where it was then smuggled to militants in Syria.
Chhipa was ultimately arrested after meeting an undercover FBI agent multiple times in 2021 and 2022 to accept funds “earmarked for a Syrian woman and Islamic State group member known as Umm Dujanah,” the Associated Press reported from the weeklong trial in December.
According to the AP, lawyers representing Chhipa argued during the trial that the FBI’s operation followed a decade of baseless investigation and “played on his clear desire to find a wife by using undercover operatives who, among other ruses, pretended to be marriage brokers or even a willing bride.”
Chhipa was convicted of one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization and four counts of providing and attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
When announcing the sentencing yesterday, FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven Jensen said the funds that Chhipa raised for the Islamic State group “could have been used to enable terrorist operations and attacks targeting innocent U.S. citizens at home and abroad.”
“Today’s sentencing underscores the FBI’s commitment to severing these streams of funding and keeping the American people safe,” he said.
