The Islamic State group may be using eBay and PayPal to funnel money into the U.S. to fund terror activities there as part of a global terror funding network spanning from the U.K. to Bangladesh.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, an American man convicted for his ties to ISIS said during his interrogation he used sales on eBay as cover for transferring money into the U.S., where it was supposed to be used to fund terror attacks.
The man, Mohamed Elshinawy, was arrested in Maryland last May and, according to the report, pretended to sell computer printers on the online market place to have funds passed to him through PayPal, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday.
Elshinawy reportedly received $8,700 as part of a global terror funding network run by a senior ISIS official known as Siful Sujan. Elshinawy, the report said, admitted the funds were intended for terror attacks, though they were never used.
Responding to the report, an eBay spokesman told the New York Daily News that “eBay has zero tolerance for criminal activity on our marketplace and we worked with law enforcement to bring this individual to justice.”
A spokesperson for PayPal told the New York daily that it works “to prevent terrorist activity on our platform.”