Posted on 10/23/2002 12:13:34 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
Businessman sentenced for violating order to stop exporting to Saudi Arabia Wed Oct 23, 3:34 AM ET
DALLAS - The owner of a computer company has been sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay US$281,892.52 restitution for shipping computer hardware, software and telecommunications equipment to Saudi Arabia after the U.S. Commerce Department (news - web sites) ordered him to stop.
Ihsan "Sammy" Elashyi, 42, of Richardson, Texas, faced a maximum sentence of up to 50 years in prison and a fine of US$1.25 million after pleading guilty in June to four counts of a 39-count indictment, including charges of money laundering and wire fraud.
In pronouncing sentence Monday, U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay also ordered that Elashyi forfeit a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe, a 2001 BMW motorcycle and three Rolex watches.
Elashyi, a U.S. citizen, founded Tetrabal Corp., which sold and exported computer and telecommunications equipment. Most of the customers were in the Middle East.
He previously worked for Infocom, a company owned by three of his brothers in Richardson, a Dallas suburb. Infocom was the target of a three-day search by a federal terrorism task force in September. An order freezing assets cited a US$250,000 investment by the wife of a political leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas.
Commerce Department officials issued a temporary denial order on Sept. 6, 2001, to prevent Elashyi, his company and Infocom from shipping goods overseas without authorization from the United States. The government said it issued the order because Infocom had tried to ship to Syria and Libya.
In his plea, Elashyi admitted violating the temporary denial order by trying to ship computers to Saudi Arabia on Sept. 22 of last year.
Prosecutors said Elashyi negotiated the sale of 119 computers to Saudi Systems Inc. and accepted the company's wire transfer of US$107,385 for the computers. Authorities said Elashyi lied to Saudi Systems, telling the company he could not return its money because the United States had frozen his bank account.
Elashyi's felony indictment was the first criminal action stemming from a two-year investigation by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force, officials said.
Prosecutors said Elashyi also admitted that he fraudulently acquired numerous credit cards in other people's names, without their knowledge. Elashyi would then obtain a supplemental card in his own name, ostensibly at the request of the primary cardholder.
The investigation revealed that Elashyi fraudulently acquired dozens of credit cards that he used to incur charges exceeding US$750,000.
Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a company co-founded and directed by one of Elashyi's brothers, closed in December after the Treasury Department (news - web sites) accused the self-described charity of being a Hamas front and seized its assets.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.