6 Arrested in Illegal Transfer Of Tens of Millions to Pakistan

[MORTARDUDE]

6 Arrested in Illegal Transfer Of Tens of Millions to Pakistan
By RONALD SMOTHERS

DATELINE: NEWARK, June 17

Three New Jersey men and three New Yorkers, all natives of Pakistan, were charged today with illegally transmitting tens of millions of dollars in cash from the United States to Pakistan by using several unlicensed money-transfer businesses and failing to file the required currency-transaction reports.

Over the last 18 months, more than $70 million passed through the operation en route to Pakistan, said a spokesman for Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney for New Jersey. While the exact origin and destination of the
money is still under investigation, prosecutors said there was no indication that the money was connected with terrorism, narcotics or other illegal operations.

Indeed, by most indications the money appeared to come from immigrant neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, where several unlicensed storefront money transfer businesses operate, prosecutors said. They said that those businesses, in turn, took their funds to a licensed money transfer operation in Iselin,
N.J., where a confederate deposited the money into that company's bank accounts and directed that the money be wired to individuals in Pakistan.

The six men were arrested early today on a criminal complaint that grew out of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and immigration and customs agents. They all appeared before Magistrate Mark Falk in United Stated District Court, where it was determined that three of them were in the country
illegally, prosecutors said. They face 5 or 10 years in prison if convicted on the currency charges.

Named in the complaint were Syed Azhar, 44, of Morganville, N.J., who is an officer of Access Inc. of U.S.A., a licensed money transfer business based in Iselin. He is charged with transmitting the illegally amassed funds to Pakistan through the Access bank accounts. An assistant United States attorney, Marion
Percell, maintained in court that Mr. Azhar was a flight risk and asked that he be held without bail. Judge Falk set a hearing for Friday on the request.

Also named in the complaint was Ali Cheema, 22, of Iselin, an employee of Access Inc., who investigators said helped Mr. Azhar prepare phone receipts and documentation of the transactions. A Pakistani citizen, Mr. Cheema is a legal permanent resident of the United States. His bail was set at $100,000.

Umer Dar, 26, of Bayonne, an employee of Kashmir Money Inc., an unlicensed money transfer business in Manhattan, is also named. A naturalized American citizen, he was held on $100,000 bail.

The three men who were found to be in the country illegally were held without bail and could face action by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. They are Farooq Malik, 39, of Astoria, Queens, who works at Link to Link, a Long
Island City business that is not licensed to transfer money overseas; and Umar Mushtaq, 29, and Khurram Farid, 30, both of Brooklyn, who worked for Fast Global Services.