'Charity' money aided terrorists, agent claims

Some of the $57 million in "charity" raised by pull-tab instant lottery tickets sold in Ohio bars went "to support terrorism" in the Middle East, an Ohio Department of Public Safety liquor agent testified today.
The money went to militant terrorist groups Hezbollah in Syria and Hamas in Israel's West Bank and Gaza Strip, law enforcement officer Harold Torrens testified today in a sentencing hearing of Phillip George Jr.

"(Money) was used to support the military cause against Israel and the United States," Torrens said, quoting from a document supplied to him from a private international financial intelligence company headed by a former agent for Israel's government intelligence arm.

Initially, the money for the gambling was touted as going to the United Saghbeen Society, a private all-girls school in Lebanon, a Middle Eastern country known for harboring terrorist groups.

But, Torrens testified, the head of Interfor Inc., the international financial intelligence company, that school was used to funnel funds to terrorists.

"(The United Saghbeen Society) is a charity that is quite well known to intelligence agencies, especially in the Middle East," Torrens testified, quoting documentation provided him by Interfor Inc.

The testimony was part of George's sentencing hearing today before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman.

Ruehlman presided over a three-week trial in which George was convicted of money laundering, gambling, conspiracy and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

A jury found that George was using several charities -- including fake ones he created -- to skim as much as $57 million from sales of the "tip tic" lottery tickets, mostly sold in bars.

When police raided George's organization, they recovered at least $3.6 million in cash.

Before the trial, George took his attorney's advice and rejected a plea bargain that would have resulted in a four-year prison sentence.

Ruehlman can sentence him to a maximum of 33 years in prison. A sentencing hearing which began this morning continued this afternoon.

Even though George reported an annual income of about $50,000 on tax returns, authorities produced a paper trail of documents that indicate he pays cash for $180,000 annually in credit card charges, lives in a $500,000 house, has 75 suits from high-end manufacturers and drives a Jaguar luxury car.

Pull-tab lottery tied to terror

Official: Funds went to Mideast

By Dan Horn
The Cincinnati Enquirer

State authorities are investigating whether a pull-tab lottery game that was supposed to benefit charities in Ohio instead funneled nearly $500,000 to Islamic terrorists in the Middle East.

Details about the investigation emerged Thursday in Cincinnati during the sentencing of Philip George, an Akron man who was convicted of skimming money from the sale of instant lottery tickets at Ohio bars.

An investigator for the Ohio Department of Public Safety testified that at least some of the money that George raised through the lottery has been linked to the militant terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

Hezbollah operates in Syria and Lebanon, while Hamas is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

George's attorney, Robert Gutzwiller, described the allegations as "balderdash" and said his client has no connection to terrorists.

But the state investigator, Harold Torrens, testified that at least $234,000 in lottery proceeds was sent to the United Saghbeen Society.

The Lebanese charity has been linked to the two terrorist groups by a private international intelligence company.

Torrens said investigators also are trying to confirm that the Saghbeen Society received an additional $250,000 in cash from the lottery game.

"George used the lottery to accumulate money that went overseas," Torrens said Thursday after George was sentenced in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to 25 years in prison. "There were wire transfers going over there in large amounts of money."

He said investigators connected the lottery funds to terrorist groups with help from the private international company, which is headed by a former Israeli intelligence officer.

The company, Interfor Inc., found that both George and the Saghbeen Society are "quite well-known to intelligence agencies in the Middle East, primarily the government of Israel."

"The United Saghbeen Society is an organization that has supported two terrorist networks in the Middle East," the company concluded in a report it sent to Torrens last year.

George's lawyer, Robert Gutzwiller, said the allegations are false. He said George is a Lebanese Christian who was born in the United States. He said his client has no reason to support Islamic terrorist groups.

"It's balderdash," Gutzwiller said. "It's nothing but innuendo. ... I'm not buying into anything they're saying."

He said the money sent overseas went through the Saghbeen Society to an all-girls school in Lebanon, not to terrorist organizations.

The judge who presided over George's three-week trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court didn't buy that explanation. Judge Robert Ruehlman said the evidence against George seemed credible.

"This is a major criminal enterprise," Ruehlman said. "This money was going for a very bad purpose, for international terrorism."

Torrens said the state investigation will continue for some time and that all information about terrorism has been turned over to federal authorities.

Despite all the talk about terrorism, none of the charges against George mentions the terrorist groups or suggests that he knew the money sent overseas might have supported terrorists.

George was convicted of money laundering, gambling and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity for his role in organizing the pull-tab lottery game, which authorities say generated as much as $57 million from 1997 to 2000. Several people across the state have been arrested in connection with the game.

The instant lottery was billed as a charitable game, but authorities believe George and others made up some of the charities and skimmed money for their own use.

In addition to sending money overseas, Torrens said, George spent proceeds from the lottery on expensive clothes and travel to resorts in Las Vegas and Florida.

"What he did was pretty reprehensible," Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said Thursday. "He made people think the money was going to charity, when really it was going to line somebody's pockets or possibly to fund a terrorist organization."

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