Southampton Scam Suspect Charged With Financing Terrorism in New York City

A woman wanted by local police for participation in a rental scam was on the radar of the New York Police Department at the same time, Southampton Town Police Chief James Kiernan said this week.

In fact, Victoria Jacobs, also known as Bakhrom Talipov, had been the subject of a year-and-a-half-long investigation by the NYPD Intelligence Bureau and the Manhattan district attorney’s office’s Counter Terrorism Bureau. She was indicted earlier this year on charges of using cryptocurrency to provide financial support to violent terrorist groups operating in Syria.

Locally, Jacobs, 53, a resident of the Upper East Side in New York, was wanted by police in connection with a rental scam perpetrated in 2019. Police say she collected a $13,200 down payment for a Deerfield Road rental in Water Mill. The tenant went to move into the house and discovered that Jacobs did not have permission from the homeowner to find a tenant.

The following year, police put out a Crime Stoppers alert, looking to find her and question her about the case.

“NYPD knew where she was,” Kiernan related. The agency advised Southampton counterparts of her location and they arrested her on March 14, 2022, the chief said. She was charged with a felony count of third degree grand larceny, arraigned, and released on her own recognizance, which Kiernan said is common for such a charge.

Almost a year later, on January 31, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr., and New York City Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell announced the indictment. She’s accused of soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism in the first degree, as a crime of terrorism; money laundering; and other charges, according to a release from the D.A.’s office.

“This case marks the first time that terrorism financing is being prosecuted in New York State Court and is one of the rare cases worldwide where cryptocurrency is alleged to have financed terrorism,” said Bragg. “This complex case demonstrates the depth of knowledge and resources this office has to combat terrorism and extremism in New York and throughout the globe. I thank our partners at the NYPD for their continued partnership to root out terror threats in any form they take.”

From September 2018 through June 2019, Jacobs provided material support to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization, while living in New York City, officials said. She provided more than $5,000 to the terrorist training group “Malhama Tactical,” which fought with and provided special tactical and military training to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.

Jacobs is also accused of laundering $10,661 on behalf of Mahalma Tactical by receiving cryptocurrency and Western Union and MoneyGram wires from supporters around the globe and sending the funds to Bitcoin wallets controlled by Mahalma Tactical. In addition to sending cryptocurrency, she also purchased Google Play gift cards for the organization, police said.

In December 2019, Jacobs provided a comprehensive U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook to an online group she believed was associated with both Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and al-Qaeda affiliated Jihadist group Hurras al-Di. The goal was facilitating their bomb-making efforts in Syria, according to the release.

In August 2021, Jacobs purchased military-style combat knives, metal knuckles, and throwing-stars, posting in online forums that she had a “brother” who was “behind enemy lines,” and asking for prayers for the “courage, strength, guidance, and wisdom to carry out certain missions.”

Jacobs/Talipov is charged with violent felony counts of soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism in the first degree as a crime of terrorism, conspiracy in the fourth degree as a crime of terrorism, plus felony counts of first degree money laundering in support of terrorism, and six counts of third degree criminal possession of a weapon.