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.
