Posted on 07/24/2002 1:41:34 PM PDT by Shermy
Edited on 05/07/2004 7:12:34 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
DETROIT - A man arrested with $12 million in allegedly phony cashier's checks after arriving on a flight from Indonesia told government agents that he could provide them with information on terrorism, a U.S. attorney said Wednesday.
Omar Shishani also said the man the checks were made out to may belong to al-Qaida, assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Straus said.
(Excerpt) Read more at freep.com ...
"Family members in Jordan say they have not been in touch with the Shishani or his lawyer, but have spoken with seven other brothers in the United States."
Seven more of these freaks here!! (This story has a lot more 'unwinding' to do yet.)
Las Vegas agencies investigating if there's a terrorism link in casino counterfeit case July 23
LAS VEGAS - Authorities are investigating whether there is a terrorism link between seven men charged in a Las Vegas casino counterfeit check scheme and a Jordanian-American man arrested in Detroit with dlrs 12 million in phony cashier's checks.
"The checks in Detroit and the checks here were all drawn on the same bank," said Secret Service Agent Lee Fields, of the Las Vegas office. "The bank exists. The account numbers do not exist."
Officials at the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas confirmed Tuesday that a multi-agency joint terrorism task force was investigating the June 12 arrests of the men at the MGM Grand hotel-casino.
Questions arose after the July 17 arrest of Omar Abdul-Fatah Hamed Shishani, 47, as he stepped off a flight from Indonesia at Detroit Metro Airport.
Authorities say he had nine counterfeit checks drawn from West America Bank in Pomona, California, — the same bank connected to three phony cashier's checks seized during the arrest of the seven men.
...
According to court documents, an undercover Las Vegas police detective infiltrated the counterfeiting ring in May.
Each of the seven men has pleaded innocent to charges of possession of counterfeit securities and conspiracy. Lawyers for some of the men, reached Tuesday by The Associated Press, denied any terrorism connection.
Jimmy Leung, Aziz Massomipour, Asatour Magzanian, Jaman Khan, Mohammad Nadery, Hans Walton and Henry Davis told authorities they are from Southern California. Massomipour, Magzanian, Nadery and Davis were freed on bond. Massomipour failed to appear for a subsequent court date and a fugitive warrant was issued for his arrest.
Leung, Walton and Khan remain in federal custody in Las Vegas.
Yeah, sort of conflicts with this story "his brother is simply a wealthy computer salesman who travels often."
Oooooh, the plot thickens.
LOL, how un PC of you. I like it, but don't tell Byron the Aussie, he might get mad.
_______________
Terrorism investigators have opened an inquiry into whether a check scam in Las Vegas is linked to terrorism, federal officials confirmed Monday.
Daron Borst, a special agent with the FBI's Las Vegas office, said the inquiry is being conducted by the Southern Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force.
'The case is being investigated for any terrorism links,' said Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas.
The inquiry originates from a June federal indictment in Las Vegas that charges seven men with possessing fraudulent securities. According to court records, Las Vegas police and the U.S. Secret Service uncovered a complex scheme to cash fraudulent cashier's checks at the MGM Grand. The checks were for large sums of money and were drawn on a nonexistent branch of the West America Bank in Pomona, Calif.
On Wednesday, a man named Omar Shishani was arrested at the Detroit Metropolitan airport while in possession of $12 million in fraudulent cashier's checks. The checks, according to a federal affidavit filed in Michigan, were also drawn on the bogus West America bank branch in Pomona.
The Washington Post reported that Shishani's name appears on a terrorism watch list and that his name is also listed in documents seized during U.S. operations in Afghanistan.
Of the seven men charged in the Las Vegas check case, the Review-Journal was able to confirm Monday that at least three have backgrounds that would feasibly pique the interest of anti-terrorism investigators.
For example, one of the two suspected leaders of the check cashing scheme is Aziz Massomipour, who is of Persian heritage and may hail from Iran, although his citizenship status in the United States was not immediately known Monday.
During an initial court appearance, Massomipour was released on his own recognizance. He failed to show up for subsequent proceedings and is a fugitive. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
His attorney, Brian Fisher, did not return phone calls seeking comment Monday.
In court documents, Massomipour said he is self-employed and lists a Los Angeles home address.
Another co-defendant, Jamal Khan, originally hails from Pakistan, according to court documents. The documents state that, although the Southern California resident speaks English, he requested that for future court hearings, he have an interpreter who can interpret proceedings for him in a Pakistani dialect.
Khan's attorney, Paul Wommer, confirmed the Pakistani heritage and said he seriously doubts Khan could have any potential link to terrorism. Khan is a 43-year--old college graduate with two children. He currently is in federal custody on an immigration hold.
'In the criminal complaint, there is not even a hint of any relation to terrorism,' Wommer said.
A third defendant, Mohammad Nadery, 63, of Los Angeles, has requested a court translator for a dialect commonly spoken in Afghanistan, according to court records. His attorney said Nadery has been in the United States since 1984 and he has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1990.
'I would be very surprised if there was any connection whatsoever with the Detroit incident,' attorney Scott Bindrup said.
According to online records, Nadery once listed a residence in Diamond Bar, Calif., a city near Pomona that Shishani at one point in his life listed as a residence. A connection between Shishani and Nadery has not been established by federal officials.
Shishani currently lists Dearborn, Mich., as his place of residence.
Another man charged in the Las Vegas case, Jimmy Leung, 32, is a native of China and is in federal custody. His defense attorney could not be reached for comment Monday. Neither could the attorney for defendant Asatour Magzanian of Los Angeles, a U.S. citizen believed to be of Armenian heritage.
Two other co-defendants are Hans Walton, 41, and Henry Davis, 52. Davis' attorney, John McNicholas, said Davis is American-born and raised. He has no criminal history.
'This whole al-Qaida connection sounds like fantasy,' McNicholas said. 'Until we see real facts, to me, it sounds like something you would read in a fictional novel.'
Walton attorney Robert Draskovich also suspects any terrorism link is far-fetched, saying his client has told him he was simply 'in the wrong place at the wrong time.'
This is not the first time that a probe into terrorism has been linked to Las Vegas. Following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, it was revealed that five of the hijackers -- including ringleader Mohamed Atta -- had come to Las Vegas in the months preceding the attacks.
The exact purpose of those visits is still not clear.
According to federal documents, the check cashing case was first uncovered by two Las Vegas police intelligence detectives through a confidential informant. A detective, posing undercover as a casino host, eventually gained the trust of Leung and Massomipour. The detective convinced the two that he could arrange the cashing of the cashier's checks at the MGM, according to the court records.
The seven men were eventually arrested, many of them during a sting at the Strip resort. Some of the men were described as low-level 'passers,' meaning they were being used to cash the checks.
Some of the men also had elaborate fake identities that contained the names of real individuals in California 'with good credit,' according to the court records.
Las Vegas police Deputy Chief Bill Young, who oversees the police Intelligence Division, said given some of the facts of the case, police immediately began working with federal officials to probe any potential terrorism links.
'There was curiosity and it would not surprise me if there ends up being a link,' Young said. 'There is not a day that goes by that we aren't working with federal law enforcement officers on terrorism.'
I am shocked, I tell you, shocked that he did not show up for further proceedings.
Oops!
Yup. I just looked up real quick to see them showing a copy of documents with ( a lot of numbers) $36M at the bottom.
They pull this 9/11 S*** one more time, and we turn everything Arab into glass....
Seriously. Not twice.
Next time, you all die.
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