Toronto ISIS financier pleads guilty

An Islamic State financier from Toronto has admitted he used online fundraising platforms to raise money he sent overseas for the terrorist group’s fighters.

At the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Monday, Khalilullah Yousuf pleaded guilty to terrorist financing and participating in terrorist group activity.

Claiming he was fundraising for Palestinians in Gaza and Muslim religious events, Yousuf solicited donations on crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe.

But Yousuf instead sent the money to ISIS supporters, who provided photos of weapons, ammunition and an ISIS flag to show how it was being used.

Yousuf also acknowledged he produced ISIS propaganda, as well as manuals on how to join the terror group and carry out attacks.

He was sentenced to 12 years. Considering the time he has already spent in custody awaiting trial, he faces an addition nine years in prison.

“This case involved marshaling a significant amount of complex evidence related to cryptocurrency, online undercover operations and digital forensics,” said Crown prosecutor Ira Glasner. “The result was a principled and fit sentence for this corrosive offence.”

Although a wide array of terrorist groups ranging from Hamas to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers have been accused of raising money in Canada, prosecutions are rare.

“This is the third terrorist financing conviction in Canada, which in and of itself is significant,” said Jessica Davis, an expert on the topic.

“It’s an important signal to others who might seek to send funds to terrorist groups abroad that they can be caught,” the former Canadian government intelligence analyst said.

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A Canadian citizen, Yousuf was allegedly part of an international ISIS network that used online and encrypted messaging platforms to finance and recruit for ISIS.

“He pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu al-Hussain al-Hussaini al-Qurashi,” according to an agreed statement of facts read into the court record.

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“On a note found on Yousuf’s encrypted hard drive, he wrote that he believed the Islamic caliphate was the only acceptable form of rule.”

Beginning in 2019, he ran four online fundraising drives, among them a “Ramadan Appeal for Gaza” and a plea for donations for a “Our sister Palestine Umm from Gaza.”

Together with money he made through unemployment insurance and COVID-19 emergency benefits, he sent more than $35,000 to ISIS.

He initially used MoneyGram and Western Union to ship the proceeds to ISIS supporters in the U.S., Spain and other countries, but he later switched to bitcoin, telling an undercover officer it was better because it did not leave a trail.

He also told the undercover officer he knew the money was going to ISIS, according to the agreed facts in the case.

Yousuf was arrested in July 2023, following a two-year investigation by the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, the FBI and Spain’s Guardia Civil.

He was also indicted on terrorism financing charges in the U.S.

Following his arrest, the RCMP found Telegram messages he exchanged with an alleged overseas ISIS supporter named Osama Aboubayda.

The messages showed that in December 2022, Aboubayda  “tasked” Yousuf to research the Chinese embassy in Kabul, the Crown said. A week later, ISIS attacked a Chinese hotel in the Afghan capital.

Yousuf also “created and disseminated” propaganda materials designed to promote ISIS, and radicalize and recruit others into the group, according to the agreed facts.

“The blood of the disbeliever is equal to the blood of a dog,” read one of the posters. Another encouraged using vehicles to mow down pedestrians.

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Davis said it was noteworthy Yousuf had used cryptocurrency, crowdfunding campaigns, fake charitable causes and commercial cash transfer companies.

“The combination of various methods for moving funds is increasingly common: terrorist financiers tend to favour different methods in case one is disrupted,” she said.

“This increases the complexity of the investigation, however, because information needs to be obtained from multiple sources and companies to follow the trail and figure out where money is going and why.”

Meanwhile, the use of cryptocurrency was also increasingly used for funding terrorism, said Davis, president of the Ottawa consulting firm Insight Threat Intelligence.

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The case follows a series of ISIS-related arrests across the country that have raised questions about youth radicalization and immigration security screening.

Last Oct. 3, three ISIS supporters were sentenced to life for shooting a family in Mississauga, Ont., to prevent one of the victims from reporting their terror financing operation to police.

A month earlier, the RCMP arrested Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a Pakistani citizen who came to Canada on a student visa, as he was allegedly on his way to New York to conduct a mass shooting at a Brooklyn Jewish centre on the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

In July 2024, the RCMP arrested a father and son originally from Egypt, Ahmed and Mostafa Eldidi, who were allegedly about to carry out an attack for ISIS in Toronto.

That same month, Kimberly Polman, a B.C. woman who was alleged trained by ISIS in Syria, was charged with two terrorism offences.

In a report released on Monday, the Organization for the Prevention of Violence said religiously motivated violent extremism (RMVE) linked to ISIS had “re-emerged in Canada after a lull following the fall of the caliphate in Syria and Iraq.”

“Recent arrests suggest a growing interest in carrying out attacks within Canada, with an increasing number of young people involved,” the Edmonton-based group wrote in its latest survey of extremism.

“Some of these RMVE actors in Alberta appear to be inspired by geopolitical events, particularly the Israel-Hamas war, or other grievances, such as anti-2SLGBTQI+ sentiments.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca