ISIS supporter convicted in Canada’s largest terror-financing bust

In a Canadian legal first, a man is convicted of raising $50,000 for ISIS via crowdfunding and cryptocurrency.

By World Israel News Staff

Toronto resident Khalilullah Yousuf pleaded guilty last week to the largest terror financing case in Canadian history, admitting to sending approximately $50,000 to Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists over a two-year period.

Yousuf, 36, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, half of which he must serve before qualifying for parole. He will receive credit for time spent in pre-trial detention.

“This is the largest terrorism-financing conviction to date in Canada in terms of monetary value. This conviction is also the first successful terrorism-financing conviction in Canada where the accused used cryptocurrency and the first where they used online crowdfunding,” the RCMP said in a media statement on Thursday.

Prosecutors said that Yousuf sent some $50,000 to ISIS terrorists between September 2019 and December 2022, distributing the funds via cryptocurrency and money transfers.

As part of his scheme, the Canadian citizen created fundraisers on the public charitable giving platform GoFundMe. Yousuf claimed that donations would be sent to impoverished Palestinians,

George Dolhai, director of public prosecutions for the PPSC, emphasized in a press release that Yousuf’s conviction was critical for holding the enablers of terrorism accountable.

“At its core, terrorism is violence that seeks to justify itself. But the violence needs support by advocates, recruiters, and financiers as essential parts of the cycle of intimidation and destruction. The verdicts and sentences… represent how Canadian society in accordance with the rule of law, emphatically holds to account those who make the violence possible,” Dolhai said.

Jessica Davis, a former Canadian government intelligence analyst, told Global News that Yousuf’s conviction is an “important signal to others who might seek to send funds to terrorist groups abroad that they can be caught.”

Davis added that “this is the third terrorist-financing conviction in Canada, which in and of itself is significant.”