Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson argued that Ismail would "leave prison a wealthy man" based on the many assets he stashed out of the U.S. government's reach.
Ismail was also previously convicted and served a seven-month jail sentence for passport fraud committed after agents searched his home as part of this investigation in January 2022. Ismail and Farah, their respective passports having been seized, lied on application forms to falsely claim that they lost their old travel documents. FBI agents later arrested Ismail at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in April 2022 as he attempted to board a flight bound for Kenya.