Ex-Broker Convicted of Aiding ISIS
A former broker who gave up his financial services career in the U.S. and left his family to travel to Syria and fight for the terrorist Islamic State group (ISIS) was convicted Tuesday by a federal jury in Manhattan of terrorism-related crimes and obstruction of justice, according to court documents and the Justice Department.
Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, 46, a U.S. citizen and former resident of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in New York City, was found guilty after a two-week trial in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York before Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis.
In addition to obstruction of justice, he was found guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS; providing material support to ISIS in the form of personnel, training, expert advice and assistance; and receipt of military-type training from ISIS.
The jury also found that Asainov’s provision of material support to ISIS resulted in the death of one or more people.
Asainov faces up to life in prison, according to the Justice Department. A federal district court judge will decide on the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, the Justice Department said. A sentencing date wasn’t provided.
Asainov worked as a broker for Great Point Capital, based in Chicago, and Assent LLC in Brooklyn, a Justice Department spokesman told ThinkAdvisor on Friday.
Great Point Capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Assent LLC couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Ted Kleynerman, who served as branch office manager for both those Financial Industry Regulatory Authority-regulated firms, according to his LinkedIn profile, also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fighting in Syria
“Mr. Asainov, a U.S. citizen, traveled abroad to kill and train others to kill on behalf of ISIS. Now, he is being held accountable,” Matthew G. Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security, said in the Justice Department press release announcing the verdict on Wednesday.
“As proven at trial, Asainov was a member of ISIS who was so committed to the terrorist organization’s evil cause that he abandoned his young family here in Brooklyn, New York, to make an extraordinary journey to the battlefield in Syria where he became a lethal sniper and trained many others to kill their adversaries, and even after being captured still pledged his allegiance to ISIS’ murderous path,” Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in the statement.
Shift to Radical Islam
It was proven at trial that, between December 2013 and March 2019, Asainov “provided and conspired to provide material support and resources in the form of personnel, including himself and others, training, and expert advice and assistance, to a foreign terrorist organization, namely ISIS, knowing that ISIS was a designated foreign terrorist organization that had engaged in terrorist activity and terrorism,” according to the Justice Department.
Asainov also received military-type training from ISIS, in violation of federal law, the Justice Department said.
He converted to Islam in 2009 and became increasingly interested in Islamic extremism, according to the Justice Department and court documents. “By the fall of 2013, he was consuming radical Islamic content online,” the Justice Department said.
Asainov suddenly dropped out of classes at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in September 2013 and started making preparations to travel to Syria to “wage violent jihad,” according to the Justice Department.
On Dec. 24, 2013, Asainov left behind his wife and daughter in Brooklyn, and traveled on a one-way ticket from New York to Istanbul, Turkey, to obtain entry into Syria, the Justice Department said.
Over the course of about five years fighting on behalf of ISIS, Asainov fought in several battles against ISIS enemies, including engagements at Kobani, Tabqa, Raqqa and Deir el-Zour, up to and including ISIS’ last stand in Syria at Baghouz in March 2019, according to the Justice Department.
Asainov was trained in the use of automatic rifles, machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. In Tabqa, in mid-2014, he volunteered to train as a sniper, according to the Justice Department.
He went on to become a sniper trainer or “emir” on behalf of ISIS, estimating that he taught almost 100 students.
From Syria, Asainov tried to recruit another individual to travel from the U.S. to Syria to battle for ISIS, and sought to obtain funds to buy a scope for his rifle from the same person, according to the Justice Department.
Asainov was captured in Syria after ISIS’ last stand at Baghouz, near the Syria-Iraq border. Before being captured, Asainov discarded his rifle and destroyed his mobile phone, the Justice Department said.
Source: thinkadvisor
