Posted on 02/07/2009 12:58:21 AM PST by Cindy
February 5, 2009
Note: the following text is a quote:
http://baltimore.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/ba020509.htm
PAKISTANI NATIONAL PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY TO OPERATE AN UNLICENSED MONEY REMITTING BUSINESS
Baltimore, Maryland - Imdad Ullah Ranjha, age 34, a Pakistani national residing in Glen Burnie, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money remitting business, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
According to his guilty plea, Imdad Ranjha worked at Hamza, Inc., a money remitter business in the District of Columbia operated by co-defendant Saifullah Ranjha (S. Ranjha). A cooperating witness, acting at the direction of law enforcement, gave S. Ranjha and his associates a total of $2,208,000 in government funds in order to transfer the monies abroad through an informal money transfer system called a “hawala,” using a network of persons and/or businesses to transfer money across domestic and international borders without reliance upon conventional banking systems and regulations. The cooperating witness represented that the monies were the proceeds of, and related to, his purported illegal activities, including drug trafficking.
S. Ranjha was the primary point of contact for the cooperating witness and received the bulk of the monies from the cooperating witness. S. Ranjha was assisted on some occasions by Imdad Ullah Ranjha, and another co-defendant each of whom kept the cooperating witness apprised, either in person or on the phone, of transaction details. Most of the monies were turned over to S. Ranjha at locations in Maryland. On a few occasions, the cooperating witness met with S. Ranjha, Imdad Ranjha or other associates at Hamza, Inc., to provide them with monies for a particular hawala transfer. S. Ranjha arranged with Imdad Ranjha and other associates for the equivalent amount of monies, minus commissions, to be delivered to the cooperating witness, his third party designee, or a designated bank account in Canada, England, Spain, Pakistan, Japan and Australia. S. Ranjha kept a commission of approximately five percent of the amount of currency sought to be transferred on each occasion. Other conspirators involved in a particular transaction retained an additional commission of between three to five percent of the transaction amount. All the funds transferred abroad were picked up by cooperating individuals and returned to the Government.
"ICE is committed to ensuring the integrity of the nation's financial systems and will continue to pursue those who seek to exploit it through cooperative law enforcement efforts with our federal and international law enforcement partners,” stated Scot R. Rittenberg, Acting Special Agent in Charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Baltimore, Maryland.
Special Agent in Charge C. Andre’ Martin, IRS-Criminal Investigation stated, "IRS-Criminal Investigation has the financial investigators and expertise critical to locating the money and prosecuting the offenders. IRS-Criminal Investigation is united with the rest of the law enforcement community in our resolve to financially disrupt those that commit crimes against our society and the world economy.”
Imdad Ranjha faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison at his sentencing, which U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis has scheduled for March 24, 2009 at 9:30 a.m.
Saifullah Anjum Ranjha, age 45, a Pakistani national residing in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and to concealing terrorist financing and was sentenced to 110 months in prison.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation for their investigative work. In addition, Mr. Rosenstein thanked our international partners, the Spanish National Police; Australian Federal Police; London Metropolitan Police; and Royal Canadian Mounted Police for their help.
Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorney Christine Manuelian who is prosecuting the case.
Thank you, Cindy. I’ve had my eye on Ullah for awhile. We can’t have money remitting in this country.
:-)
Another tyrannical legacy of the “War on Drugs”. The government now claims the power to know where all but trivial amounts of your money is all the time and who you give it to.
Enormous power and the potential to abuse it.
You have a problem for people being prosecuted for money laundering and terror financing?
If you’re not doing anything wrong or illegal, you have nothing to worry about.
“If you’re not doing anything wrong or illegal, you have nothing to worry about.”
It is almost impossible to live today without violating the law, whether you know about it or not.
You have a problem for people being prosecuted for money laundering and terror financing?
There is no mention in the story of terrorism or money laundering - despite the Pakistani context - and there's no doubt that the FBI, IRS, and ICE would have touted that angle to the high heavens had those crimes been among the charges (perhaps as they would have been right to do).
But there are no terrorism charges, and so the best super-lame-o statement they can muster is "our resolve to financially disrupt those that commit crimes against our society and the world economy."
Equating "hawala" per se to terrorism is ridiculous and ignorant. Similar money transfer mechanisms have been used for many centuries and across all cultures and nations.
In countries with primitive, underdeveloped, and/or repressive banking systems (aka "government repression and control") these schemes are often the ONLY way to move money around for legitimate and often emergency purposes (e.g., hospital bills for an ailing grandmother).
Conventional banks often can't make these transfers at all, and even if they can it might take days or weeks to get the funds transferred. Whereas a legit money transfer agent can usually move funds from person A (in, say, the USA) to person B (in, for example, Nepal) in 48 hours or even less.
There's no problem with the IRS, FBI, and ICE going after lawbreakers, of course. But it's worth remembering that money transfer agents (including "hawala") have been in existence since there was money, and they serve an extremely valuable economic and sometimes lifesaving function despite the hamhanded efforts of some to equate it with drugs and terrorism.
Ain't scaring the American people the American way of goverment?
Thanks for your input.
Angkor,
Apparently you must not have had time to read the press release before responding.
While I do appreciate feedback; I appreciate feedback and pings from people who actually read the posts.
The reason why I do post .gov and .mil press releases at times is because:
1. The press either does not report and/or under-reports publicly available information.
2. One should get a well-rounded word picture of what activities are going on in the world — and our world does include the U.S.A.
Now, the information contained in my thread post is posted for informational purposes and is archived here for the same purpose.
That’s it; that’s all.
“There is no mention in the story of terrorism or money laundering...”
#
Yes, there is.
SNIPPET: “The cooperating witness represented that the monies were the proceeds of, and related to, his purported illegal activities, including drug trafficking.”
SNIPPET: “Saifullah Anjum Ranjha, age 45, a Pakistani national residing in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and to concealing terrorist financing and was sentenced to 110 months in prison.”
>>>>>> Apparently you must not have had time to read the press release before responding. While I do appreciate feedback; I appreciate feedback and pings from people who actually read the posts. <<<<<<
Cindy — Yes, I did read the post from top to bottom. What did I get wrong that led you to believe otherwise?
Second, I do appreciate your posts and my critique was aimed not at you but at the three agencies cited.
If I overstepped somewhere, my apologies, I certainly didn’t intend to insult you in any manner.
OK, I read it again and stand corrected. There are mentions of terrorism and drug dealing.
I don’t know how I missed those.
I guess my main point was that “hawala” (Chinese “fei chen”, Western “remittances”) per se is innocuous.
I will only note that it was the informant who brought up the drug dealing angle (saying that’s where the money came from), not the money remitters. It was the informant’s (false) cover story.
The point was they let the guy know where the money came from so he was a willing money launderer. Of course, he already knew what type of money he was moving around, that’s why they charged a couple hundred grand to move 2 million out of the country.
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