No funding for Hezbollah from this shop!
Three Yemeni immigrants conspired to put more than $100,000 into overseas bank accounts they thought were controlled by Hezbollah, U.S. prosecutors say. The NY shopkeepers, Alomari, Al Huraibi and Saeed are standing trial on money-laundering charges in U.S. District Court in Rochester, N.Y.
The case started by investigating over 300 CTR’s (currency transaction reports) that were filed against Alomari and Saeed by banks. The transactions involved amounted to over $14 million. Who says immigrant shopkeepers can’t make a decent living?
An confidential witness was put into the theater. He approached the shopkeepers in Saeed’s store and told them he wanted to move $12k out of the US. Saeed told him he knew people who could help. The charge would be $50 for every $1,000 sent overseas. Ofcourse the undercover informed Saeed in living colors that the money he would like to send abroad was in fact fraudulently obtained. That announcement did (of course) did not stop the hawala circus. The undercover was refered to a liquor store, where he handed over the money. The money ended up as planned on a bankaccount in Lebanon. The suspects exchanged cash for bank checks which they mailed abroad to be cashed or deposited. In a true Hawala network you would not expect to see any CTR’s since the regular financial infrastructure is completely out of scope. This apparently was a part hawala, part regular financial transactions network. This could be a result of the small scale (amateur) of the operation. Since there probably was not enough money flowing (in) to settle all positions created by promising money abroad, the suspects actually had to transfer a lot of money abroad to make the transfers happen. They did so by using part of the regular financial network by getting money orders and checks to physically sent aboard.
An undercover agent presented himself as a Hezbollah member after the shopkeepers introduced the confidential witness to former Yemeni Army Intelligence officers that supported Hezbollah. The undercover asked the shopkeepers to transfer money to support Hezbollah to Yemen, which they did (or at least they thought they were). The money ended up in a bankaccount in Bahrein that was controlled by law enforcement.
Prosecutors in court said the three were caught in a sting operation in which they allegedly agreed to illegally transport the funds to what they thought were accounts controlled by the Lebanese militant group, which has been classified as a terrorist organization by U.S. officials. U.S. District Judge Mr Siragusa has ruled neither Hezbollah nor terrorism can be mentioned in the trial because they men were charged with money-laundering, rather than terrorism-related counts. The men’s indictment reportedly makes no mention of terrorism or Hezbollah.
This case again shows how hawala networks are part of shady money transfers all over the world. By having tighter controls in place in he regular financial industry, you will see a lot of the dirty money move over to the unregulated financial industry. These shopkeepers now know that law enforcement knows about hawala networks as well.
http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/US_v_Alomari_Complaint.pdf
