craigepo
05-20-2010, 09:11
In federal court, Kansas City man admits sending money to al-Qaida
By MARK MORRIS and TONY RIZZO
The Kansas City Star
Khalid Ouazzani, a Moroccan-born naturalized U.S. citizen, acknowledged in court that he had sworn an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida in June 2008, about the time he sent his last payment to a Middle Eastern bank for transfer to the terror organization.
During Wednesday’s plea hearing, Ouazzani, 32, appeared wearing an orange jail jumpsuit. His hands were shackled to a chain around his waist. He didn’t speak except to politely answer “yes, sir” to questions posed by the judge and his attorney.
At a press conference later Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips said that Ouazzani, who has lived in the Kansas City area for several years, never was a direct threat to residents of the area.
“The public should be assured that at no point did Ouazzani present an imminent risk of harm to our community,” Phillips said.
Phillips declined several times to discuss details of an investigation by the Heart of America Joint Terrorism Task Force — a partnership of local, state and federal agencies — that led to Ouazzani coming under suspicion.
After Ouazzani pleaded guilty Wednesday to the charge of providing material support to a terrorist organization, his attorneys, Robin Fowler and Tricia Tenpenny, issued a brief written statement and emphasized that their client had accepted responsibility for his conduct. They declined to answer further questions.
“He deeply regrets what he has done, and is taking steps to atone, to the extent he can, for his crimes,” the statement read. “He will continue to do so.”
In pleading guilty, Ouazzani acknowledged that he and co-conspirators not identified in the charges discussed fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia as another way to support al-Qaida.
Authorities declined to answer any questions about possible co-conspirators or whether they had been prosecuted in other jurisdictions.
Neither officials nor his attorneys would say when Ouazzani first came to the United States or to Kansas City. He operated several businesses in the area in recent years, including a used auto parts business and at least one cell phone store.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ouazzani became a permanent resident alien on July 7, 2004, and became a U.S. citizen on June 16, 2006.
Ouazzani is married and has two children. He lived in a tidy townhouse cooperative near 87th Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard in Kansas City.
A manager there said she couldn’t talk about specific residents but said the cooperative runs background checks on prospective residents. Neighbors either wouldn’t talk or said they didn’t know much about the family.
Employees at the Pick-n-Pull on East Truman Road, across the street from Ouazzani’s former auto parts business, said he had bought parts there, but not very often and not for some time.
Though Ouazzani admitted funneling $23,500 to al-Qaida, he was indicted earlier this year on charges that alleged he fraudulently obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars, much of which he later wired to banks overseas.
He purchased about a dozen Kansas City-area properties in 2006 and 2007 through tax foreclosure sales — sometimes for as little as hundreds of dollars — and then obtained home equity line-of-credit loans for much more, Jackson County records show. Later, he defaulted on loans totaling $415,000.
In April 2007, he obtained a $175,000 bank loan from Union Bank in Kansas City — claiming he needed it as working capital for his business, Truman Used Auto Parts on East Truman Road.
In his guilty plea Wednesday, he admitted that he committed money laundering and bank fraud in that transaction. To get the money, he inflated his income, the value of nine of his properties and the inventory of his business.
That scheme is what led to the payments to al-Qaida, authorities said.
Ouazzani sent $112,830 of the money to the United Arab Emirates, where he purchased an apartment.
In August 2007, after selling the auto parts business, Ouazzani sent $6,500 to al-Qaida through an intermediary. In June or July 2008, he made his final payment to the terrorist network, sending $17,000, which came from the sale of the apartment.
Ouazzani has been in federal custody since February, when the original indictment against him was unsealed.
That indictment accused him of 33 felony counts of bank fraud, money laundering, interstate fraud and making false statements to a government agency.
As part of that indictment, federal prosecutors indicated that they would be seeking the forfeiture of about $500,000 that Ouazzani allegedly obtained illegally.
The charges contained in the February indictment accused Ouazzani of providing false information to several banks to obtain loans involving several parcels of real estate in the Kansas City area and one in St. Louis.
He also allegedly used fraudulent means to obtain loans for several businesses he operated, including a cell phone store in Kansas City.
According to the money laundering allegations, funds that Ouazzani fraudulently obtained from lenders was moved overseas through wire transfers to banks in Morocco, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The alleged illegal overseas wire transfers were made mostly in 2007 and involved about $300,000, according to the indictment.
The false statement charges involved alleged false information that Ouazzani gave to Missouri officials while seeking Medicaid and food stamp assistance, the indictment alleges.
Ouazzani’s wife, Fadoua Elouerrassi, also from Morocco, previously was prosecuted in federal court in Kansas City for conspiracy to commit marriage fraud. That case involved her previous marriage to an American citizen. She and her parents, who also entered into sham marriages with U.S. citizens, all pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy charges. She was placed on probation.
She married Ouazzani later that year, according to Jackson County marriage records.
The terrorism case, which appeared to spring from related marriage and bank fraud investigations, raised the question of whether terrorist financiers had found a way to benefit from the wide-open lending practices that led to the collapse of the housing market in the fall of 2008.
Retired FBI agent Jeff Lanza said that since 9/11 certain white-collar fraud cases have drawn special scrutiny because of possible terrorist links.
“In any white-collar crime case you ask, ‘Where did the proceeds go?’ ” Lanza said. “And it’s not just sending money to al-Qaida in the Middle East. There’s a concern that this kind of money could be used to fund home-grown terrorism here in the United States.”
According to calculations in his plea agreement, Ouazzani faces a possible sentence of 30 years to life, according to court records.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/19/1957858/kc-man-admits-sending-money-to.html
By MARK MORRIS and TONY RIZZO
The Kansas City Star
Khalid Ouazzani, a Moroccan-born naturalized U.S. citizen, acknowledged in court that he had sworn an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida in June 2008, about the time he sent his last payment to a Middle Eastern bank for transfer to the terror organization.
During Wednesday’s plea hearing, Ouazzani, 32, appeared wearing an orange jail jumpsuit. His hands were shackled to a chain around his waist. He didn’t speak except to politely answer “yes, sir” to questions posed by the judge and his attorney.
At a press conference later Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips said that Ouazzani, who has lived in the Kansas City area for several years, never was a direct threat to residents of the area.
“The public should be assured that at no point did Ouazzani present an imminent risk of harm to our community,” Phillips said.
Phillips declined several times to discuss details of an investigation by the Heart of America Joint Terrorism Task Force — a partnership of local, state and federal agencies — that led to Ouazzani coming under suspicion.
After Ouazzani pleaded guilty Wednesday to the charge of providing material support to a terrorist organization, his attorneys, Robin Fowler and Tricia Tenpenny, issued a brief written statement and emphasized that their client had accepted responsibility for his conduct. They declined to answer further questions.
“He deeply regrets what he has done, and is taking steps to atone, to the extent he can, for his crimes,” the statement read. “He will continue to do so.”
In pleading guilty, Ouazzani acknowledged that he and co-conspirators not identified in the charges discussed fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia as another way to support al-Qaida.
Authorities declined to answer any questions about possible co-conspirators or whether they had been prosecuted in other jurisdictions.
Neither officials nor his attorneys would say when Ouazzani first came to the United States or to Kansas City. He operated several businesses in the area in recent years, including a used auto parts business and at least one cell phone store.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ouazzani became a permanent resident alien on July 7, 2004, and became a U.S. citizen on June 16, 2006.
Ouazzani is married and has two children. He lived in a tidy townhouse cooperative near 87th Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard in Kansas City.
A manager there said she couldn’t talk about specific residents but said the cooperative runs background checks on prospective residents. Neighbors either wouldn’t talk or said they didn’t know much about the family.
Employees at the Pick-n-Pull on East Truman Road, across the street from Ouazzani’s former auto parts business, said he had bought parts there, but not very often and not for some time.
Though Ouazzani admitted funneling $23,500 to al-Qaida, he was indicted earlier this year on charges that alleged he fraudulently obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars, much of which he later wired to banks overseas.
He purchased about a dozen Kansas City-area properties in 2006 and 2007 through tax foreclosure sales — sometimes for as little as hundreds of dollars — and then obtained home equity line-of-credit loans for much more, Jackson County records show. Later, he defaulted on loans totaling $415,000.
In April 2007, he obtained a $175,000 bank loan from Union Bank in Kansas City — claiming he needed it as working capital for his business, Truman Used Auto Parts on East Truman Road.
In his guilty plea Wednesday, he admitted that he committed money laundering and bank fraud in that transaction. To get the money, he inflated his income, the value of nine of his properties and the inventory of his business.
That scheme is what led to the payments to al-Qaida, authorities said.
Ouazzani sent $112,830 of the money to the United Arab Emirates, where he purchased an apartment.
In August 2007, after selling the auto parts business, Ouazzani sent $6,500 to al-Qaida through an intermediary. In June or July 2008, he made his final payment to the terrorist network, sending $17,000, which came from the sale of the apartment.
Ouazzani has been in federal custody since February, when the original indictment against him was unsealed.
That indictment accused him of 33 felony counts of bank fraud, money laundering, interstate fraud and making false statements to a government agency.
As part of that indictment, federal prosecutors indicated that they would be seeking the forfeiture of about $500,000 that Ouazzani allegedly obtained illegally.
The charges contained in the February indictment accused Ouazzani of providing false information to several banks to obtain loans involving several parcels of real estate in the Kansas City area and one in St. Louis.
He also allegedly used fraudulent means to obtain loans for several businesses he operated, including a cell phone store in Kansas City.
According to the money laundering allegations, funds that Ouazzani fraudulently obtained from lenders was moved overseas through wire transfers to banks in Morocco, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The alleged illegal overseas wire transfers were made mostly in 2007 and involved about $300,000, according to the indictment.
The false statement charges involved alleged false information that Ouazzani gave to Missouri officials while seeking Medicaid and food stamp assistance, the indictment alleges.
Ouazzani’s wife, Fadoua Elouerrassi, also from Morocco, previously was prosecuted in federal court in Kansas City for conspiracy to commit marriage fraud. That case involved her previous marriage to an American citizen. She and her parents, who also entered into sham marriages with U.S. citizens, all pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy charges. She was placed on probation.
She married Ouazzani later that year, according to Jackson County marriage records.
The terrorism case, which appeared to spring from related marriage and bank fraud investigations, raised the question of whether terrorist financiers had found a way to benefit from the wide-open lending practices that led to the collapse of the housing market in the fall of 2008.
Retired FBI agent Jeff Lanza said that since 9/11 certain white-collar fraud cases have drawn special scrutiny because of possible terrorist links.
“In any white-collar crime case you ask, ‘Where did the proceeds go?’ ” Lanza said. “And it’s not just sending money to al-Qaida in the Middle East. There’s a concern that this kind of money could be used to fund home-grown terrorism here in the United States.”
According to calculations in his plea agreement, Ouazzani faces a possible sentence of 30 years to life, according to court records.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/19/1957858/kc-man-admits-sending-money-to.html