Jury selection starts in missile sting case
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Jury selection began yesterday for a British businessman accused of selling a shoulder-fired missile to an undercover FBI informant who posed as a terrorist.
More than 600 potential jurors could be called to federal court in Newark before attorneys settle on the 12 panelists and four alternates who will begin hearing the case against Hemant Lakhani next month.
Lakhani, 69, has been jailed since he allegedly arranged the delivery of a Russian-made Igla missile to the FBI operative at a hotel near Newark Liberty International Airport in August 2003. The informant claimed he represented a Somalian terror group that wanted 50 more missiles to use against U.S. jetliners; he paid Lakhani more than $80,000 for the first one and promised him $5 million for the rest.
The arrest followed a two-year FBI sting that included help from Russian agents, who posed as the missile sellers. It also drew global attention as one of the first major U.S. terrorism busts after the 9/11 attacks.
Prosecutors indicted Lakhani on charges of attempting to provide material support to terrorists, but said they had no evidence linking him to known terrorist groups. He also faces counts of money laundering, unlawful brokering of foreign defense articles and attempting to import merchandise by means of false statements.
Lakhani pleaded not guilty and insisted in jailhouse interviews that he was set up by government agents. Defense attorney Henry Klingeman said he will argue that his client was a victim of government entrapment.
Lakhani sat silently in U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden's courtroom yesterday as jury selection began. He wore glasses and a slightly oversized suit; four deputy U.S. marshals sat within a few paces of the defense table.
About 40 potential jurors were dismissed based on their replies to a questionnaire. The rest will be screened individually in coming days by Hayden, Klingeman and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stuart Rabner and Brian Howe. The trial is expected to last at least 10 weeks.
Hayden declined to release the form used to interview each juror, for fear its publication could influence the process before a panel is seated. But the responses in open court shed light on the case and the jury that attorneys hope to seat.
They asked potential jurors about their jobs, their homes, their families and friends. They asked for their views on terrorism, undercover operations and law enforcement. And they asked if they spoke Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi or Russian, languages overheard on FBI tapes that will be played during the trial.
After 50 minutes of questioning, the judge dismissed two men -- one because of a medical condition and the other because of a language barrier -- and approved a male engineer and a retired female teacher. Each will be added to a pool of about 40 panelists asked to return for the final selection on Jan. 4.
Three other men have pleaded guilty to charges related to the plot.
Manthena "Vijay" Raja, a London financier, pleaded guilty in September to laundering $86,000 for Lakhani. Raja, an Indian national, said he said he knew the money was payment for a missile.
Yehuda Abraham, a New York jeweler, and Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, an Indian national, pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting service in connection with the arms plot. Both admitted they arranged to secretly transfer thousands of dollars for Lakhani, but neither said they about the missile deal.
Hameed and Raja agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and are likely to testify at Lakhani's trial.
Gem Dealer Is Said to Aid Scheme on Terrorist Funds
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Yehuda Abraham is a slight, stooped 76-year-old gem dealer, with a house in Queens, an office in New York's diamond district and shops around the world.
One night last October, prosecutors say, a client entered Mr. Abraham's 12th-floor Midtown office and handed him $30,000 in hundred dollar bills, an odd, if believable transaction in the world of international gem dealers. Mr. Abraham, by the government's account, counted out every note, then gave the client his business card.
But this was not a jewelry sale, prosecutors allege. It was a secretive deal, with a code number and a cash commission, in which Mr. Abraham agreed to transfer the client's money to a bank account in Europe, out of the sight of federal regulators.
That transaction, if it occurred as federal prosecutors say, has landed Mr. Abraham, an immigrant who came to America nearly half a century ago, in the middle of an international dragnet that prosecutors said took into custody a dangerous arms dealer and his accomplices who were willing to bring missiles into the United States to shoot down passenger jetliners.
Prosecutors said in federal court yesterday that Mr. Abraham was the money man, a shadowy figure who facilitated the work of terrorists by giving them the means to finance their actions -- the purchase of the missiles -- through an informal money transfer system, known as hawala, which is common in the Middle East and a preferred method of finance for terrorists.
Mr. Abraham walked slowly into a federal courtroom in Manhattan yesterday, a curious figure described by some as an honest businessman and prominent member of the Jewish community in Rego Park. His rabbi showed up to offer moral support, and his brothers and sisters and children filled two aisles in the courtroom, as Mr. Abraham's lawyer, Larry Krantz, insisted this was a misunderstanding.
"I think there is a misconception to his role in this case," Mr. Krantz said.
Mr. Abraham, president of Ambuy Gem Corp., was arrested Tuesday by federal agents along with two other men -- Hemant Lakhani, a British citizen, and Moinudden Ahmed Hameed, of Malaysia.
Mr. Lakhani has been identified by prosecutors as an international arms dealer and charged with providing material support to terrorists as well as selling arms without a license. Prosecutors said he was trying to peddle shoulder-launch missiles to terrorists. Despite the prosecutors' claim that Mr. Abraham and Mr. Hameed aided Mr. Lakhani's terrorist dealings, the two have been charged only with conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, a charge that at the most could mean five years in prison.
"Yes, this elderly gentleman in poor health significantly helped broker the sale of a surface to air missile," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Purpura as he asked a judge to hold Mr. Abraham without bail.
But Federal Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck was not persuaded.
"I fail to see any allegation that could be read fairly proving or alleging that Mr. Abraham was providing money for weapons as opposed to any other black-market activity," Judge Peck said. He set bond and conditions of release pending trial, but stayed his decision until Mr. Abraham appears in court in Newark today.
Mr. Abraham has lived and worked for the last 40 years as a New York gem dealer, a career that has taken him as far away as Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, men who worked with him for years on West 47th Street described him as a grandfather, an observant Jew and a well-known proprietor. Their reaction was one of disbelief.
"For a Jew to do something like that, I cannot believe it or understand it," said a 49-year-old jewelry wholesaler whose shop is on 47th Street. "He's a prominent member of our community. To do something like that is crazy."
The world of the diamond district, though, is a cash-rich one, where unset gems must often be purchased in cash, and where wealthy customers will often pay in bundles of bills. A law enforcement official said yesterday that behind the bustling facade of the diamond district is a nebulous world of murky financial transactions where federal agents have long focused on money laundering and other crimes.
Gem merchants acknowledged yesterday that large amounts of cash flow across international borders every day, but insisted that it is done in legal and documented ways.
"This business is very sensitive. People are very careful," the jewelry wholesaler said.
Mr. Abraham's relatives appeared stunned and angry as they left the court yesterday. They refused to comment, and the lawyer, Mr. Krantz, also refused to discuss Mr. Abraham's life, his work or the charges against him. In court, Mr. Krantz and the prosecutors described Mr. Abraham as a wealthy and successful man with more than $1 million equity in his home and shops in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
But in court papers, prosecutors painted a more sinister picture of Mr. Abraham. The papers suggest that he was also involved in the hawala cash transfer system for some time and that he had a good reputation among those who used it.
In 2002, the prosecutors said, Mr. Lakhani, interested in proving his good faith with missile dealers overseas, enlisted Mr. Abraham to send $30,000 to a bank in Europe. He was described, in tape-recorded conversations with other participants, as trustworthy and well known. To ensure security of the deal, there would be a code. The person posing as a buyer of missiles -- actually a government co-operator -- was given the serial number of a one dollar bill. Later, the authorities say, after Mr. Abraham counted out the $100 bills in his office, he reached into his pocket and turned over a dollar bill with the exact serial number. The deal was complete, except for Mr. Abraham's fee of $1,500, prosecutors said.