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Note: The following text is a quote:

http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel07/illegalmoney032807.htm

NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

MARCH 28, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOMALI NATIVE SENTENCED FOR $1.3 MILLION ILLEGAL MONEY TRANSFERS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for operating an unlicensed money transfer business which sent more than $1.3 million overseas, primarily to Somalia.

Serar Ahmed Abdullahi, 43, of Kansas City, a naturalized citizen who emigrated from Somalia in 1993, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner this afternoon to three years and five months in federal prison without parole.

“We take this criminal conduct very seriously as a matter of national security,” Schlozman said. “Somalia is widely considered to be a safe haven and training ground for terrorists, who have taken advantage of the nation’s extraordinarily dangerous and unstable climate to set up their own infrastructure. This security concern compels the United States government to bring a halt to any unlicensed, unregulated and unmonitored cash transfers into Somalia.”

The federal indictment contains no allegations about either the source of the illegally transmitted cash or its destination.

“This defendant, like other hawalladars, as they are called, had no personal knowledge of what happens to the money on the receiving end of the transfer,” Schlozman said. “Because Somalia’s relationship to the United States is severely strained by the dominant presence of the Islamic fundamentalists who control large parts of Somalia, and in the absence of a stable government, we have no means to determine whether any of the transactions ultimately ended up in the hands of terrorists. For obvious reasons, that makes the defendant’s illicit money transfers a direct and considerable threat to our national security interests.”

On Aug. 24, 2006, Abdullahi pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Abdullahi, a taxicab driver, admitted that he collected more than $1.6 million from the Somalian community in the Kansas City area, then transferred that money to another money transmitter in Minnesota as well as a bank account in Switzerland. Those funds were ultimately sent to various recipients in Somalia and elsewhere.

“Money transmitting businesses are required by federal law to register with the Secretary of Treasury of the United States,” James D Vickery, Special Agent in Charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation, said. “Our tax system treats these offenses seriously and the IRS has a responsibility to aggressively investigate and pursue prosecution of individuals who intentionally violate the nation's tax and structuring laws.”

Between Jan. 5, 2000, and Jan. 14, 2003, Abdullahi deposited approximately $1.6 in various bank accounts, primarily in cash deposits structured in a manner to avoid detection of the deposits and transfers. During this same time period, Abdullahi transferred approximately $1.3 million to locations outside the state of Missouri, including a bank account in Geneva, Switzerland, in the name of B.P. Shah and the bank account of Jubba Financial Services, Inc., (later renamed Kaah Express, F.S., Inc.) in Minneapolis, Minn.

Abdullahi was required under federal law to register with the U.S. Department of Treasury in order to operate a money transmitting business, Schlozman said, but did not register. Instead, Abdullahi concealed his operation of a money transmitting business by failing to report the operation of the business on federal income tax returns, failing to report the operation of the business in applications for food stamp assistance to the Missouri Department of Social Services, and initially denying to federal law enforcement officials that he was operating a money transmitting business.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan F. Garrett. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS-Criminal Investigation and theMissouri Department of Social Services.

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32657

Australian Detainee Sentenced to Nine Months

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, March 30, 2007 – Australian detainee David Hicks, the first person convicted under the Military Commission Act of 2006, was sentenced here today to nine months in confinement, a sentence he will serve in Australia under a diplomatic agreement.

The military commission members recommended a sentence of seven years, which was the maximum allowed by a pre-trial agreement signed March 26. However, that agreement also stipulated that the convening authority would suspend any portion of the sentence beyond nine months. In an earlier hearing today, Hicks confirmed his guilty plea to a charge of material support for terrorism, which he originally entered in an evening hearing here March 26.

In that earlier hearing, Hicks confirmed that he attended several al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 2001 and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, spent time with al Qaeda fighters at Kandahar Airport and at the front lines in Konduz before being captured while fleeing to Pakistan. He did not, however, admit to ever firing a shot or having any knowledge of the 9/11 attacks in advance.

The eight military officers who made up the commission deliberated for just under two hours tonight before delivering the sentence.

In arguing for the maximum sentence, the government’s chief prosecutor, Marine Lt. Col. Kevin Chenail, referred to Hicks by his al Qaeda pseudonym, “Muhammad Dawood,” and called him a highly trained terrorist and an invaluable asset to al Qaeda. Chenail noted that although today Hicks was wearing a suit and tie, he was at one time on the front lines in Afghanistan and is dangerous precisely because he can fit in with the Western world.

“Muhammad Dawood will always be a threat unless he changes his beliefs, his extremist ideology,” Chenail said.

The real damage Hicks can do is to influence other “confused souls” who might follow in his footsteps into a life of terror, Chenail said. Also, he said, there’s no reason to believe Hicks wouldn’t join al Qaeda again if set free.

“David Hicks walked away from Australian freedoms at 24 only to travel thousands of miles to attack American freedoms,” Chenail said.

Marine Maj. Michael Mori, Hicks’ detailed defense counsel, argued that Hicks was nothing more than a high school dropout who couldn’t qualify for the Australian army and became a lowly soldier for al Qaeda. As soon as Hicks got a real taste of combat on the front lines in Afghanistan, he panicked and ran away, Mori pointed out.

“His heart wasn’t in al Qaeda,” Mori said. “He wanted to be a soldier, and it was the one place he could do it.”

Since his capture, Hicks has cooperated with U.S. authorities and worked on completing his high school diploma, Mori said. Hicks’s guilty plea shows that he is on his way to being rehabilitated, Mori said, asking the commission to set the sentence at one year and eight months, which would make Hicks’s total confinement since his capture seven years.

“All I want you to do is give him an opportunity to try to make a new start in life,” Mori said.

In an earlier written statement Hicks submitted through Mori, he apologized to his family, the people of Australia and the United States, and thanked the servicemembers at Guantanamo for treating him professionally. “While not perfect, David feels he’s tried his best to behave at Guantanamo,” Mori read.

The pre-trial agreement states that Hicks will be transferred to Australian custody and control within 60 days of the sentencing, which means he will be back in Australia by May 29. The agreement also prohibits him from communicating to the media for one year about his experiences, capture and detention, and ever profiting from publications about his experiences.