An American man who was jailed for 14 years for providing financial support to the Al Qaeda group terrorist group raised the funds by flipping an apartment in Dubai, a US court was told.
Kansas City businessman Khalid Ouazzani swore allegiance to Al Qaeda and three years ago pleaded guilty to providing financial support to terrorist group which was responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001, the Associated Press news agency reported.
The 35-year-old was this week found guilty of bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to support a terrorist group and was sentenced to 14 years in jail.
Ouazzani obtained loans from US banks and wired to the funds to Dubai, where he used the cash to buy an apartment. This was then resold at a profit of $17,000 and the funds were forwarded to Al Qaeda. In total, he raised $23,000 in funding for the organisation.
“A lot of damage, a lot of lives could have been lost with that $23,000,” U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson was quoted as saying after delivering the verdict in the case.
Ouazzani was part of a small terror cell, which also included two New York-based suspects, Sabirhan Hasanoff and Wesam El Hanafi, who also pleaded guilty to supporting Al Qaeda.
Ouazzani apologises for her actions and told the court: “I make no excuses for the crimes I committed… I’m not proud of the mistakes I’ve made. I’m ashamed.”
Hasanoff was a Brooklyn-based accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and El-Hanafi was an information security specialist in Brooklyn with Lehman Brothers. They both moved to Dubai in 2007 and 2005 respectively and came into contact with Al Qaeda in Yemen.
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