| Charged With
Hawala Money Laundering Al
Zubaidi Now Set to Plead
Guilty on January 15
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
Dec 3 – For operating an
informal money transmitting
system known as a hawala,
Mohanad Al-Zubaidi was
arrested and detained on money
laundering charges on February
1, 2024. Inner City Press was
there.
Al-Zubaidi
was brought before U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate Judge Robert W.
Lehrburger.
The prosecutor
emphasized that his father is
in Iraq and that a
co-defendant, who he didn't
name, has a plane ticket to
Turkey.
The just
unsealed indictment names also
Shaker Saleh Mohammed Hauter
and Abdulkader Noori Hamza,
neither in detention as of
February 1 at 6 pm.
Judge
Lehrburger cited these foreign
ties, and that his children
are not yet school age, as
factor leading him to detain
Al-Zubaidi.
On February 2,
the man stopped at JFK was
presented and detained. Inner
City Press was again the only
media there so live tweeted:
OK - now money
laundering defendant who was
slated to fly out of JFK to
Turkey yesterday - Shaker
Saleh Mohammed Hauter -
AUSA: We're
seeking detention. They moved
$65 million to Yemen, Syria
and the UAE. This law was
amended in the Patriot Act
AUSA: We have
photos of him with an
industrial money counter and
bags of cash. He could flee.
He was arrested at JFK last
night with $10,000 cash. He
traveled to Qatar three times
AUSA: The
defendant Shaker Saleh
Mohammed Hauter is from Yemen,
his daughter in law is
there. Defense: He was
going to a dentist in Turkey
for dental implants. His son
owns a halal market in The
Bronx and he live at [address
said; we're not reporting]
AUSA: The
dental implants may be a
front.. The son is involved in
moving cash. Defendant:
I went via Qatar.
Judge: There is a
serious risk of flight. I am
going to detain the defendant.
Jump cut to
December 3, when it was
docketed that Al-Zubaidi plans
to plead guilty in January:
"Set/Reset Hearings as to
Mohanad Al-Zubaidi: Change of
Plea Hearing set for 1/15/2025
at 12:00 PM before Judge P.
Kevin Castel."
The case
is US v. Al-Zubaidi, et al,
24-cr-51 (Castel / Lehrburger)
***
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