FBI: Detroit Man Tried to Fund ISIS Travel With Cryptocurrency

Jibreel Pratt, 26, of Detroit, Michigan, was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison after having pleaded guilty to two counts of concealing cryptocurrency donations he intended to make to the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. was joined in the announcement by Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan.

Court records say that in February 2023, Pratt initiated a conversation with a Confidential Human Source who Pratt believed was an ISIS member who could facilitate overseas travel to join ISIS.

Over the next several months, Pratt communicated his desire to travel overseas to join ISIS and recorded a video pledging allegiance to ISIS’s leader.

Pratt also provided ideas, information, documents and handwritten notes on a variety of subjects, including how ISIS could use drones and remote-controlled cars to deliver explosives, how ISIS could organize intelligence operations, and how ISIS could improve its air defense systems.

And, in March and May 2023, Pratt sent the cryptocurrency Bitcoin to the CHS, intending that the money would be used to help pay for the travel of other individuals who were purportedly traveling to join ISIS and/or to help fund an individual who Pratt believed would commit an act of violence in support of ISIS.

“Over these last years, our office has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the FBI to protect Americans from hardened ISIS supporters in our midst. Mr. Pratt is the latest traitor who—in his own words—operated ‘in the shadows.’ And we will continue to stand guard because he may not be the last,” said U.S. Attorney Gorgon.

Pratt concealed the nature and source of his Bitcoin transfers by using a virtual private network and an app that encrypted private keys and transaction data.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorney Douglas Salzenstein and Jennifer Burke, Trial Attorney, National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

“Today’s sentencing of Jibreel Pratt is a testament to the hard work of FBI Detroit’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in keeping Michigan safe from homegrown violent extremists,” said Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. “It should send a strong message to anyone seeking to support foreign terrorist organizations, via financial means or otherwise, that the FBI will not stand idly by and allow this activity to occur within the United States. FBI Detroit remains committed to protecting the American people and will work relentlessly to disrupt any plot that threatens the security of our nation.”

The sentencing follows the FBI bust of an alleged Halloween terror plot. The FBI arrested three who were accused of plotting to shoot up a gay nightclub in Ferndale, a suburb of Detroit.

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