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 Disclosure of the unsecured loan the husband, Syed Rizwan Farook,
28, took out from San Francisco-based Prosper, a peer-to-peer
lending service, offered a new glimpse into the money trail under
scrutiny by investigators of last week's mass shooting.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has described Farook, the
U.S.-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and his Pakistani-born wife,
Tashfeen Malik, 29, as a couple "radicalized" by Islamic extremist
ideology.
Malik, who spent a good portion of her life in Saudi Arabia and
married Farook there before returning with him to California in the
summer of 2014, is believed by investigators to have pledged
allegiance on Facebook to the leader of the militant group Islamic
State just before the killings.
The wife's extremist views took form before she came to the United
States, but it remains to be seen whether she and her husband were
indoctrinated by other individuals or whether they turned to radical
ideology on their own, the FBI has said.
Authorities say the heavily armed couple opened fire on Farook's
co-workers from the county Environmental Health Department during a
holiday party at the Inland Regional Center social services agency
in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles.
Fourteen people were killed and 21 others were wounded in the
assault. The couple died several hours later in a shootout with
police.
If the massacre - the deadliest burst of U.S. gun violence in three
years - proves to have been the work of killers inspired by Islamic
militants, it would mark the most lethal such attack in the United
States since Sept. 11, 2001.
In yet another twist to the case, state marital records examined by
Reuters on Tuesday revealed that the man said by authorities to have
furnished the couple with the two assault-style rifles used in the
attack was related by marriage to Farook's family.
Specifically, Enrique Marquez, whose home was raided over the
weekend and was being questioned by federal investigators on
Tuesday, became married last year to Mariya Chernykh, whose sister
is married to Farook's older brother, Raheel Farook.
While investigations into assaults branded as acts of terrorism
often focus on the money behind them, U.S. government officials said
the FBI's examination of the couple's finances has not linked them
with any foreign group.
DRAINING THEIR ACCOUNTS?
Still, one government source told Reuters that Farook and Malik
apparently followed a pattern set by other militants who drained
their bank accounts and exhausted credit lines before embarking on
what they believed would be a suicide mission.
 A separate source told Reuters that Prosper, a San Francisco-based
online lender, made a $28,500 collateral-free loan to Farook in
mid-November. Loans made by Prosper, which processes borrowers'
applications and evaluates their credit-worthiness, are originated
by the third-party bank WebBank, based in Salt Lake City. Prosper
then sells its loans to investors.
Fox News first reported on Monday that a deposit of $28,500 was made
into Farook's bank account from WebBank.com on Nov. 18, and that
Farook converted $10,000 in cash, which he withdrew from a Union
Bank branch in San Bernardino around Nov. 20. Fox also reported at
least three $5,000 transfers were made in the days before the
shooting, apparently to Farook's mother.
WebBank issued a statement expressing condolences to victims of the
San Bernardino shooting but declined further comment, citing
confidentiality restrictions.
In addition to the pair of rifles and semi-automatic handguns they
carried the day of the killings, the couple were found to have
amassed thousands of rounds of ammunition, along with explosives and
other materials for making as many as 19 pipe bombs, according to
the FBI.
One booby-trap consisting of three pipe bombs rigged to a
remote-controlled device that failed to detonate was left by the
killers at the scene of the attack, apparently intended to go off as
police and emergency personnel swarmed the location, law enforcement
officials said.
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PROBING GUN CONNECTION
Meanwhile, the family connection revealed between Marquez and Farook
added a new dimension to links under investigation between the two
men.
Neighbors of Marquez have said the two had been close friends, and
the Farook brothers lived next door to Marquez when they were
growing up, through the brothers had since moved.
Federal law enforcement sources told Reuters that Marquez, who they
characterized as a key witness, had checked himself into a Los
Angeles-area psychiatric facility soon after the shooting, but they
were interviewing him on Tuesday.
Officials for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives have previously said all the guns seized in the
investigation had been purchased legally from licensed firearms
dealers in California between 2007 and 2012, with Marquez identified
as the buyer of the two assault rifles.
The marriage documents show Marquez and Chernykh were wed on Nov.
29, 2014, a few months after Farook and Malik were married and
returned to the United States. Raheel Farook and his wife, Tatiana,
were witnesses to the Marquez-Chernykh nuptials.
While Farook and Malik may have been inspired by Islamic State or
other extremists, U.S. government sources have said there was no
evidence the San Bernardino attack was directed by the militant
group or that Islamic State even knew of them.
FBI Director James Comey said on Friday that no information had been
unearthed suggesting the killers were part of an extremist cell or
network.
Still, issues of gun control, national security and immigration have
reverberated in the U.S. presidential campaign from the first moment
that authorities suggested that Islamic extremism may have played
some role in last week's attack.
On Sunday President Barack Obama urged Americans in a nationally
televised address to avoid the scapegoating of Muslims. But a day
later, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump singled out
Islam as a threat by calling for a blanket prohibition on Muslims
entering the United States.
"We have no choice but to do this," Trump told ABC News on Tuesday.
He said the ban would be temporary. "We have people that want to
blow up our buildings, our cities. We have to figure out what's
going on."
Even before the San Bernardino killings, the Obama administration
had drawn fire from political conservatives for its plan to allow
10,000 refugees from Syria's civil war into the United States,
feeding concerns about anti-Islam sentiments.
Police in Philadelphia were investigating an incident in which a
pig's head was thrown at a mosque early on Monday morning.
(Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage in San Bernardino, Mark
Hosenball and Julia Edwards in Washington and Michael Erman in New
York; Writing by Steve Gorman and Bill Trott; Editing by Jonathan
Oatis, Toni Reinhold and Lisa Shumaker)
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