NYC woman convicted of using bitcoins to fund terrorism in Syria

Victoria Jacobs could spend up to 25 years in prison.

The 44-year-old woman was found guilty of funneling funds to U.S.-listed terrorist groups in Syria, using cryptocurrency to evade detection.

A Manhattan jury convicted Jacobs of three felony counts of providing support for an act of terrorism, as well as conspiracy, money laundering and criminal possession of a weapon. The NGO Counter Extremism Project lists Victoria Jacobs, aka Bakhrom Talipov, as an “extremist leader,” and it says she may have been providing information to terrorists since 2018. She was indicted last year by the Manhattan district attorney’s office for sending more than $5,000 to Malhama Tactical, a private military contractor in Syria. A 2017 exposé by Foreign Policy magazine called Malhama the “Blackwater of Jihad.”

Read more: WMAR