4 arrested in InfoCom probe
'We will follow the money of terror'
12/18/2002
Four officers and employees of a Richardson Internet services company were arrested by federal agents Wednesday on charges that they conspired to hide their financial dealings with a top leader of the Hamas terrorist organization.
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced details of the 33-count indictment against "terrorist moneymen" at a midafternoon news conference in Washington.
"We will follow the money of terror and we will pursue the financiers of terror as agressively as we pursue the thugs who do their dirty work," Mr. Ashcroft said.
Ghassan Elashi and his three of his brothers were arrested at their homes early Wednesday by agents of the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force. They were expected to appear for a hearing in federal court later in the day.
Mr. Elashi, is a co-founder and former board chairman of Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, an Islamic charity closed by federal authorities last year based on accusations that it was a financial front for Hamas.
Mr. Ashcroft announced the indictments of the Elashi brothers and Mousa Abu Marzook, a former U.S. resident who is the deputy political leader of Hamas. The men are accused of selling computers and computer parts to Syria and Libya, two countries designated by the Unites States government as state sponsors of terrorism.
The attorney general credited local police agencies in Richardson, Plano and Dallas for their help in cracking the case.
 FBI agents searched the InfoCom offices just days before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. (FILE 2001 / DMN) |
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas on Tuesday, is built around a $250,000 investment made in 1993 by Mr. Marzook's wife, Nadia, in InfoCom Corp., the Elashi brothers' company.
If convicted, Mr. Ashcroft said the accused men face up to 10 years in prison on charges of illegal exports to Syria and Libya; 10 to 20 years fo rmoney laundering; 10 years for dealing in the property of a designated terrorist; and five years in prison for making false statements.
He said the defendants are also subject to fines of up to $7.2 million.
"Today's charges against a senior leader of Hamas are the latest in an agressive campaign to identify, disrupt and destroy the sources of funding that make terrorism possible," Mr. Ashcroft said.
The attorney general noted that charges of material support for terrorism are also pending against individuals in Houston, Chicago, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, and Buffalo.
The U.S. Treasury Department designated Mr. Marzook a terrorist in 1995, making it illegal for anyone in the United States to do business with him. The government contends that the investment in InfoCom violated that order.
The Elashis have contended in the past that the investment was solely that of Mrs. Marzook, their distant cousin. Their attorneys have said the investment was an annuity that has been used to pay college expenses for one of the Marzooks' children.
Holy Land raised $13 million in 2000 and claimed to be the largest U.S. Muslim charity, supporting schools and social programs for Palestinians and in predominantly Muslim nations. Its Web site condemned Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
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The InfoCom arrests come one day after federal authorities arrested three relatives of a man accused of belonging to an al-Qaeda terror cell in Lackawanna, N.Y.
The three, all of Yemeni descent, were indicted on a charge that they sent more than $480,000 to Yemen without a license to operate a money transferring business, which is required by state law. Federal prosecutors also said the business was not registered with the U.S. Department of Treasury as required by federal law.
Blocking terrorists' assets and reducing the flow of money funneled to them by witting or unwitting parties has been a priority for the Bush administration since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The Treasury Department said last week that $123 million in terrorist assets have been blocked worldwide since the attacks _ nearly $87 million overseas and $36 million within the United States.
"Terrorist moneymen should know this," Mr. Ashcroft said. "We are hunting down the murderers you support, and we will hunt you down. Just as we will prosecute the terrorist who plants a bomb, we will prosecute the terrorist supporter who writes a check."
Dallas Morning News staff writer Michelle Mittelstadt in Washington, D.C., Dallas Web Staff reporter Walt Zwirko in Dallas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
E-mail: smcgonigle@dallasnews.com and mmittelstadt@dallasnews.com
Read more on this story in Thursday's Dallas Morning News.
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/121802dnmetinfocom.16d150c.html