> Although Saudi donors and other private contributors were believed to be the most significant funding source for the original forerunner to ISIS, the importance of such donations has been marginalized by the group's independent sources of income. This income, which is now estimated to overwhelmingly exceed private donations, is generated by activities such as smuggling (of oil, weapons, antiquities), extortion (e.g., the group levies around $8 million per month in "taxes" on local businesses), and other crimes (e.g., robberies, counterfeiting). The group's June 11 seizure of Mosul's central bank alone netted tens of millions of dollars (though U.S. officials note that the $400 million figure often cited in connection with the heist is not accurate).
Regarding private contributors, this is undoubtedly true but as clarified in the linked article, it's not the large sum currently. Why are there private contributors you ask? Because morons "Sunni" governments fund morons -like ISIS- to fight other morons "Shia" governmets e.g. Iran which in its own right funds some morons -Hezbollah and its ilk- to fight the original morons, in dreams of having a moronic sectarian consolidated power dream.
[Edit]: I originally put the phrases "Sunni" and "Shia" in quotes because they're usually misrepresented by non-muslims. There are different branches of Shia and different branches of Sunna "Sunni". There are newer terms like Wahabism and Ahmadiyya. Each of these terms can be interpreted in a number of ways, the "academic" distinction is quite clear but the reality is quite complicated -in short, several groups, members with different ideologies claim one of the aforementioned terms to be the one that identifies them and that they fit the most accurate description of that term-. Note that this is a gross oversimplification.
KSA is a totalitarian regime. Do you think the people would be able to fund ISIS against the wishes of the government? This is a government that doesn't even let women drive and lashes bloggers for mild criticism. And yet you claim they didn't know/approve of people funding the ISIS? I'm afraid it's you who a little ignorant about the middle east.
The Saudis may not fund the ISIS now; but they did heavily fund it it and helped set it up. The aim was to destabilize and topple Assad. Just like they did with OBL and Al Qaida; and, predictably, got similar results.