A California man accused of trying to travel to Syria to join ISIS was indicted Wednesday, charged with attempting to support terror and other counts.
Adam Dandach, 21, of Orange, California, was arrested July 3 and initially charged in a complaint of making false statements on a passport application with plans to fly from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, and eventually reach Syria, the FBI said.
Dandach was initially indicted in July on charges of making the false statements, and he pleaded not guilty, authorities said.
But on Wednesday, a superseding indictment accused Dandach of attempting to provide himself and material support to work under the direction and control of ISIS, the FBI said.
The new indictment accuses him of lying when applying for a replacement passport and then presenting the passport to an airline employee to travel to Istanbul, the FBI in Los Angeles said.
Dandach is also accused of trying to obstruct the investigation by instructing a website administrator to delete his post history, authorities said.
Dandach, who is also known as “Fadi Fadi Dandach,” is scheduled to be arraigned March 16.
Dandach and his attorney couldn’t be immediately reach for comment Wednesday.
He is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a terror group; two counts of making of a false statement on a passport application to facilitate international terrorism; and one count of obstruction of justice, authorities said.
“If convicted of all the charges in the indictment, Dandach would face a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison for the material support charge, up to 25 years for each of the two passport fraud charges, and a statutory maximum of 25 years for obstruction of justice offense,” the FBI said in a statement.
