US police, FBI Arrest 13 Pakistanis for Fraud, , 33 charged

by SYED ADEEB

WASHINGTON DC, USA, 3 February 2003 (InformationTimes.com) -- U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and police have charged 33 U.S.-
based Pakistanis with various crimes, executed 25 complaints/arrest
warrants on Wednesday, January 29, 2003, and recently arrested 13
Pakistanis -- Mohammad Aslam, Mohammad Sajid, Sadiqa Sajid, Irfan A.
Ahmad, Mohammad Pervez Akhtar, Ahtsham Altaf, Imran Altaf, Mohammed
Iqbal, Arif Khan, Kamran Malik, Mubeen Malik, Ali Sher and Tipu
Sultan -- for credit-card, social security, immigration, bank, or
mortgage frauds and identity theft in Northern Virginia.

Five defendants -- Mohammad Aslam, Mohammad Sajid, Sadiqa Sajid,
Mohammed Iqbal and Mubeen Malik -- will appear Tuesday before the
Honorable Barry R. Poretz, United States Magistrate Judge for the
U.S. District Court, Alexandria, Virginia, said an official who works
at the office of Paul J. McNulty, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of Virginia.

Eight suspects -- Irfan A. Ahmad, Mohammad Pervez Akhtar, Ahtsham
Altaf, Imran Altaf, Arif Khan, Kamran Malik, Ali Sher and Tipu
Sultan -- will appear Wednesday before the court of law for a primary
detention hearing in Alexandria, the official said.

Shah Nawaz, the alleged credit-card fraud ringleader of this criminal
gang, who is now most wanted by the FBI and Fairfax County Police,
has fled to Pakistan as have several other members of the group, U.S.
Attorney Paul McNulty said last Wednesday.

Abdul Hameed and seven other Pakistanis, who also played a major role
in the infamous credit-card scam that investigators believe netted $5
million, have either been convicted and sentenced or have pleaded
guilty and are awaiting sentencing. U.S. law enforcement officials
are now trying to arrest 12 other Pakistanis who are part of the
criminal fraud enterprise.

U.S. Attorney McNulty said there may be "a loose connection" between
the 33 Pakistanis and terrorist activities or terrorist
organizations, which is being deeply investigated. "We're looking
into where the money has gone. We know that terrorists seek to
exploit the system in our country to operate," he said. So far, the
detectives have traced about $100,000 out of the $5 million stolen
funds, which the fraud ring illegally transferred to banks in Canada
and Pakistan.

Lance Gardner, a lawyer who represented Abdul Hameed, one of the men
convicted in the illegal scheme, said: "I never heard from any of the
investigators about any link to terrorism. It was all about money."

The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Paul
J. McNulty, and Sam Dibbley, an official of the U.S. Department of
Justice, have provided the following news and information to the
InformationTimes.com :

Paul J. McNulty, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of
Virginia, announced today [Wednesday, January 29, 2003] the issuance
of 25 complaints and arrest warrants as part of Operation Swipe Out,
a large-scale, white-collar crime initiative. In addition, eight
individuals have either been convicted and sentenced or have pleaded
guilty and are awaiting sentencing. In all, 33 individuals have been
charged in this investigation. Most of the individuals, all foreign
nationals, are co-conspirators in a loosely organized criminal
enterprise, which operates on the east coast, and is primarily
involved in credit card, social security, immigration and mortgage
fraud. To date, this enterprise has caused at least $5 million in
losses to credit card companies and banks as part of their criminal
activities.

The charges include conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, misuse of
a social security account number, false procurement of [United
States] citizenship, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and identity
theft. A number of those charged are subject to deportation for
immigration violations. In addition, some of them fraudulently
obtained [U.S.] citizenship, which they face losing as a result of
the charges. Specific charges depend on the circumstances of each
case. Maximum penalties range from 5-30 years imprisonment, $250,000-
$1,000,000 in fines and 3-5 years supervised release depending on the
charge.

In addition to executing arrest warrants, federal agents executed
search warrants today [Wednesday, January 29, 2003] at two businesses
located in the Eastern District of Virginia, Metro International
Travel, Inc. and Super Travel Agency, Inc., which are suspected of
being used by conspirators in the enterprise to commit credit card
fraud.

[Mohammad Aslam -- a Pakistani-American (U.S. citizen) and resident
of Fairfax, Virginia, who was recently arrested -- owns the
Arlington, Virginia-based Metro International Travel, Inc., which was
raided and searched by U.S. federal agents. Aslam is a member and one
of the leaders of the Burke, Virginia-based Pakistan American
Business Association (PABA).
http://www.pabausa.com/photos/photos.html ]

[Mohammad Sajid -- a Pakistani owner of Alexandria-based Super Travel
Agency, Inc., who was recently arrested and whose travel service was
raided and searched by U.S. federal agents -- is also a prominent
member of PABA.]

[PABA is led by Mohammad Siddique Sheikh, Hanif M. Akhtar, Zia U.
Hassan, Zahida P. Shah, Maqsood A. Chaudhry and a few other Pakistani
immigrants residing in Virginia and Maryland. American investigative
reporters are now investigating the special links between Aslam,
Sajid, other suspects and PABA.
http://www.pabausa.com/members/executives.html ]

At the heart of this conspiracy is what is commonly referred to as a
credit card "bust-out" scheme. To further this scheme, conspirators
recruited individuals, who, in the role of middle-men or "brokers,"
were responsible for obtaining credit cards in other people's names.

Before making fraudulent charges on the credit cards, the brokers
would establish a higher credit limit on the cards by "developing" a
credit file under the cardholders' identities. "Developing" is a
process whereby, over a period of time, brokers made purchases using
the cards, and made payments to the credit card companies to
establish a strong credit history. The brokers continued this
process until the credit limit for each card was maximized. Once a
high credit limit was authorized for a particular credit card, the
brokers brought the cards to collusive merchants, who were
established businessmen willing to participate in the scheme in
exchange for a portion of the fraud proceeds (typically 10% of the
amount charged in each transaction).

These merchants would run the credit cards through their respective
merchant credit card terminals to make it appear as if goods or
services were being purchased on the credit cards when, in fact, no
goods or services were purchased. The merchants would run up
fraudulent charges on the cards until their respective credit lines
were exhausted. Neither the cardholders nor anyone else would pay
the credit card companies for the charges. The credit card companies
would wire funds to the merchants as reimbursement for the
transactions, unaware that the credit card charges were bogus. When
they received payment from the credit card companies the merchants
retained their 10% and paid the remaining 90% to the brokers by
issuing a check to an individual or business under the control of the
brokers. Sometimes the brokers would pay a portion of the proceeds
to cardholders for allowing their credit cards to be used in the
scheme. Some of the cardholders who provided cards to the brokers
obtained credit cards under fake names and social security
numbers.

In addition to credit card fraud, many of the individuals involved in
the fraud ring have obtained identity documents (such as driver's
licenses) using fake names and social security numbers. These
individuals have used the fake identities to perpetrate not only
their credit card bust-out scheme, but also immigration fraud and
mortgage fraud.

Proceeds of the scheme have been transferred to overseas banks,
including those in Pakistan and Canada.

Officials from the following seven agencies, who formed a task force
to undertake this initiative, participated in the announcement:
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Social Security Administration,
Office of Inspector General, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service, U.S. Customs Service, Fairfax County Police Department, U.S.
Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Assistant United States Attorneys Steve A. Linick and Stephen M.
Campbell and Special Assistant United States Attorney Spence Pryor are handling the
prosecution for the United States Attorney's Office.

[Syed Adeeb, the author of this IT Special Report, is America's
investigative journalist, Chief Editor of the Washington DC area-
based InformationTimes.com, InfoTimes.net and Free Press Network
(FPN), and Consulting Editor/Washington Bureau Chief of the
Sunnyvale, California-based Pakistan News Service (PNS --
www.PakNews.com )].