Thanks to ‘meanymom’ for catching the story from a week ago.
Pakistani Doctor on H-1B Visa Indicted for Jihadist Plot
How’s that vetting going?
Muhammad Masood
During his two years working as a “research coordinator” on an H-1B visa for the Rochester, Minn., Mayo Clinic, Pakistani medical doctor Muhammad Masood allegedly saw himself as having gotten “behind enemy lines”where “not many people cant [sic] even reach here to attack.”
A federal criminal complaint almost lost in the nation’s Corona-19 virus crisis alleges that Masood planned from the day he arrived in America on his H-1B visa in February 2018 that he would use the rare access it afforded to learn something useful about his enemies so as to conduct violent jihad in line with his perceived religious duty.
By January and February 2020, according to the complaint, the 28-year-old was messaging on an encrypted platform about how sick he had grown of smiling every day at the “passing kuffar”, a derogatory term for non-Muslims that often justifies execution. All the smiling was “just not to make them suspicios [sic] … I cannot tolerate it anymore.”
He messaged that he could not let his H-1B visa go to waste. “Sometimes I wantto [sic] attack enemy when I am behind enemy linea [sic] itself,” he messaged in January. “[I] wonder if I will miss the opportunity of attacking the enemy when I was in the middle of it.”
By the grace of an undercover FBI investigation, Masood will do no such thing.
Agents arrested Masood on March 19. By then, he had changed the plan from attacking the local kuffars he hated so much to joining ISIS in northeast Iran and Afghanistan, or in Syria as a medic, or maybe engineering drones “and also fight”. It’s unclear why he changed his mind about attack on U.S. soil.
Thanks to reader Judy for alerting me to the story at the Washington Times from yesterday entitled:
ICE, FBI agents took bribes to provide ‘protection,’ cook books on immigration cases, feds say
I’ll let you read that yourself. LOL! The story has so many twists that I figured it would be easiest to first check out the press release from ICE, here.
LOS ANGELES – A Calabasas man has agreed to plead guilty to five federal offenses – one related to a credit card bust-out scheme, and the others related to more than $250,000 in bribes he paid to two federal agents for assistance that included sensitive law enforcement information.
Edgar Sargsyan, 39, an attorney with law offices in Beverly Hills, was charged today with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, two counts of bribing a public official, and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. In a plea agreement also filed today in U.S. District Court, Sargsyan agreed to plead guilty to the five felony counts, which cumulatively carry a statutory maximum penalty of 50 years in federal prison.
In the plea agreement, Sargsyan admitted paying tens of thousands of dollars from the beginning of 2015 through early 2017 to a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
[….]
Sargsyan paid the HSI agent at least $32,000 in checks and at least $45,000 to $50,000 in cash in return for assistance that included the HSI agent searching law enforcement databases to corruptly obtain information that he passed to Sargsyan, according to the plea agreement. The HSI agent also altered a Department of Homeland Security database to make it more likely that a foreign national who was a client of Sargsyan’s law firm would be allowed to enter the United States. In another corrupt act detailed in the plea agreement, the HSI agent prepared a document on HSI letterhead in an unsuccessful attempt to have one of Sargsyan’s relatives from Armenia admitted into the United States.
Sargsyan also admitted he paid the FBI agent monthly cash bribes of up to $10,000 beginning in 2015 in exchange for the agent providing protection, which included running queries on law enforcement databases and warning Sargsyan to stay away from certain individuals who were the targets of criminal investigations. The agent, who worked out of the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office, accepted the cash payments on trips to Southern California, where he stayed at luxury hotels that were paid for by Sargsyan. The FBI agent also accepted from Sargsyan a $36,000 racing motorcycle as a bonus for running database checks on a particular person. Sargsyan also gave the FBI agent a $30,000 cashier’s check that was made to appear to be a payment to the agent’s business, according to court documents.
In his plea agreement, Sargsyan also admitted he participated in a conspiracy that defrauded financial institutions by fraudulently obtaining credit cards in the names of aliens who had previously been in the United States on J1 visitor visas. Once the credit cards were issued by the financial institutions, Sargsyan and his co-conspirator charged purchases, including more than $941,000 that Sargsyan personally charged at two businesses he controlled, Pillar Law Group and Regdalin Group.
Beverly Hills lawyer is at center of FBI agent corruption scandal, sources say
The FBI agent charged last week, Babak Broumand, ran Cisneros’ and Dermen’s names in restricted law enforcement databases, according to an affidavit supporting charges against Broumand. The queries showed both men were the subjects of ongoing investigations, the affidavit said.
Broumand retired last year after a 20-year career at the bureau. Prior to his departure, he was assigned to the FBI office in San Francisco, trusted with recruiting sources for investigations into national security matters. It was unclear from court records whether he’d retained an attorney.
East Bay FBI Agent Took Bribes From Armenian Mob, Feds Say
Now get this!
If there isn’t another EdgarSargsyan in the Los Angeles area we find his name pop up again in a 2018 report fromFox News:
Clinton donor’s dealings and murky connections questioned by watchdog group
EXCLUSIVE: The murky nature of Hillary Clinton’s former presidential campaign fund continues to rise to the surface.
Fox News has learned that one of the top donors to the “Hillary Victory Fund” (HVF) in 2016 was a Los Angeles-based attorney who is alleged to have misused company funds to create his own $22 million real estate portfolio. He has also been considered by California to be one of the state’s biggest tax cheats, and allegedly has ties to the Kremlin.
The donor, Edgar Sargsyan, contributed $250,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund in 2016, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, ands chaired a $100,000-a-couple Clinton fundraiser in Beverly Hills in September 2016. He is also being sued by his former company for allegedly diverting those funds to start his own real estate company.
There is much more in each of the links above!
I sure wish I knew how to draw one of these for this story!
It has been awhile since I’ve seen an interesting food stamp fraud case which was one of my driving interests when I first started writing ‘Frauds and Crooks.’
For over ten years I had noticed that much of the SNAP fraud involved trafficking in benefits at mom and pop convenience stores owned or managed by ‘new Americans.’ I wrote about a lot of cases at RRW before launching ‘Frauds and Crooks.’
Sheesh! And, you would know it—it took a long time to find out exactly which was their “native country.”
Here is the news from this week at the Herald-Dispatch from Huntington, WV:
Brother in food stamp scheme transferred to federal custody, faces revocation
HUNTINGTON — A Huntington man who admitted to food stamp fraud as part of an organized criminal enterprise three years ago has been transferred to federal custody to face possible supervision revocation after he was accused of committing those crimes while under federal supervision.
Tallozi brothers originally busted in 2016. Their food stamp fraud scheme caused an increase in crime in the neighborhood said county prosecutor.
Basim Tallozi, 64, and Samir Tallozi, 67, admitted in a Cabell County courtroom in 2017 that together, and with employees of the former Save Way gas station in the 1300 block of Madison Avenue, customers would be given lists of items needed to stock the store in exchange for 50% of the items’ cash value. On at least one occasion, items were brought to the brothers’ home. On some occasions, customers were taken to different businesses to make the purchases.
The business had a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as to how the items were purchased. Only a receipt was required for the transaction to prove the items were not stolen.
Basim Tallozi admitted to giving drugs, including meth and marijuana, to beneficiaries four times in place of the 50% cash value.
Their scheme came to a crashing halt in 2016 after Cabell County agencies raided their homes and business. An uprising in theft, drug trafficking and prostitution at and near the West Huntington neighborhood business was a direct result of the illegal trading and food stamp fraud, Cabell County assistant prosecutor Joe Fincham previously said.
Both brothers said during their plea hearings that they did not understand what they were doing was against the law at the time of their arrest.
Basim Tallozi’s attorney had requested at the time of his Cabell County sentencing that he be allowed to voluntarily give up his citizenship and be deported back to his native country as punishment instead of costly imprisonment, but Cabell Circuit Judge Paul T. Farrell declined.
[….]
As a result of his state charges, federal agents issued a warrant for his arrest and made a request to revoke his supervision.
[….]
Samir Tallozi has also been released from state prison.
I don’t know what exactly that means but I don’t think it means they will deport him. His brother is already free! What the heck! They were sentenced to over a decade in prison. Why are they out so soon?
Here we go! Ah the joys of diversity!
Took me a while to find it, but here we are! They are Jordanian!
This is the first time I have ever seen any mention of deportation for food stamp fraud. It is too bad the judge turned it down.
HUNTINGTON — Although they were sentenced Tuesday to serve decades in prison for their participation in an organized criminal enterprise, the Tallozi brothers could soon return to their native country of Jordan.
The Save Way benefit fraud operation’s leader, Samir Tallozi, 64, was sentenced to 10 years, and his brother, Basim Tallozi, 61, was sentenced to 16 to 20 years in prison. Both brothers additionally were sentenced to $25,000 in fines each for the scheme they orchestrated in the Central City neighborhood of Huntington.
The brothers admitted on Monday together, and with employees of the former Save Way gas station in the 1300 block of Madison Avenue, that customers would be given lists of items needed to stock the store, which they could purchase with government benefit cards in exchange for 50 percent of the items’ cash value. On some occasions, customers were transported to different businesses to make the purchases.
Samir Tallozi pleaded guilty Monday to engaging in organized criminal enterprise and benefit fraud.
Huntington WV is on the border of Ohio and Kentucky.
Basim Tallozi pleaded guilty to eight counts including conspiracy, engaging in an organized criminal enterprise, recruiting members to join an organized criminal enterprise and benefit fraud. He also pleaded guilty to three counts of delivery of marijuana and one count of delivery of crystal meth.
The brothers still face deportation at their May 18 reconsideration hearing. Samir Tallozi holds a green card to live in the United States, while Basim is a naturalized American citizen who has lived in the country for 35 years, raising two children. He also obtained a college degree in civil engineering.
Basim Tallozi’s attorney, Kerry Nessel, presented an offer at the sentencing hearing: He told Cabell Circuit Judge Paul T. Farrell, who often bans out-of-state offenders from returning to Cabell County, that his client would willingly turn over his citizenship to the United States and return to Jordan in return for no jail time.
“I’m dead serious about this. You would be making a great statement to the people of the state by sending them back there. Let them take care of him,” he said. “Nobody’s benefiting by sending him to prison.
We aren’t sending them across the river over to Ohio to where he could get across the bridge.”
Just when you think you have heard it all, here comes yet another scam on America.
Did you even know there were U-Visas that allow illegal aliens to stay in the US if they have been the victim of a crime. This creepy woman actually cut her willing accomplices with a box cutter to help create the lie that they were victims!
Thanks to reader Cristina for sending me the story from last month. (I am getting behind due to the distractions of life these days.) Which reminds me to say I hope all of you are doing well and staying healthy.
“According to the allegations in the indictment, between August 20, 2019, and September 30, 2019, LINARES conspired with other individuals to defraud the United States by making false statements to fraudulently obtain U Nonimmigrant Visas (“U-Visas”), for four individuals.
Victims of certain criminal activities that occur in the United States may be eligible to apply for and obtain a U Visa. A victim who obtains a U Visa may subsequently apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to adjust their status to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States.
According to the allegations in the indictment, LINARES devised and participated in a detailed scheme, whereby the four individuals each falsely reported to the Eden Prairie Police Department that they were victims of robberies committed in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
LINARES directed the individuals to file a police report stating that they were a victim of a fabricated assault, and to corroborate each other’s account of the assault. LINARES used a box cutter or other sharp object to cut the four individuals before they filed their false report with the Eden Prairie Police Department. In exchange, LINARES collected a $2,000 fee from each individual.”
Never letting a good crisis go to waste, the Open Borders Left wants illegal aliens released from detention arguing that sooner or later, COVID-19 is coming for them.
Hope all of you are surviving your own incarcerations at home. Sorry I haven’t written much here lately, but I have been busy at Refugee Resettlement Watch. You might be interested to know that although the regular refugee admissions program has been temporarily halted by the UN (yes, the UN drives the refugee train), special visa holders from Afghanistan are still being flown into America.
Here is news on the demands to free many of the 37,000 detainees ICE has in custody around the country. From Democracy Now(so this is obviously a Leftwing perspective):
Former ICE Director: Release Immigrants from Detention or COVID-19 Will Spread Like Wildfire Inside
Alarm is growing about the safety of more than 37,000 people held in immigrant detention centers and private jails that contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, where it is nearly impossible for them to avoid close contact to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Nearly half of those detained by ICE are accused of no crime other than civil immigration violations. Immigrants at three jails in New Jersey are now on hunger strikes over unsanitary conditions that put them at high risk during the pandemic.
We hear from a detained person on hunger strike and speak with John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE during the Obama administration, who is calling for ICE to release thousands from detention, and Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, which just led a national effort to stop immigration enforcement actions.
[….]
ICE says there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus among detained immigrants at the facilities it runs, but at least one worker has tested positive at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey who’s a member of the medical staff. Meanwhile, two people held at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey have tested positive. Like detention centers, the jail holds people detained for civil immigration offenses and is now on lockdown for two weeks. Immigrants at Hudson and two other New Jersey jails are now on hunger strikes over unsanitary conditions amidst the pandemic.
[….]
On Sunday, the group Never Again Action organized a protest with nearly a hundred cars outside the Hudson County Detention Center to demand New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy release people being held there. Never Again also held an in-car protest outside California Governor Gavin Newsom’s home to call for the release of detainees.
By the way, I searched in vain for any photos of their “hundred cars” and found nothing. Continue readingif you feel like it.
Well, they got what they have been waiting for…..
ICE announcedyesterday that the first detainee (this one in NJ) has tested positive for COVID-19.
First ICE detainee tests positive for coronavirus
A 31-year-old Mexican national is the first detainee in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody to test positive for the novel coronavirus, the agency announced Tuesday.
The detainee, who has been held at the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, New Jersey, has been quarantined and is receiving care, ICE said, adding that the agency “is suspending intake at the facility until further information is available.”
“Consistent with CDC guidelines, those who have come in contact with the individual have been cohorted and are being monitored for symptoms,” ICE said.
[….]
Confirmation of an ICE detainee in New Jersey contracting the novel coronavirus comes days after the state’s chief justice said he was ordering the release of hundreds of county jail inmates due to the dangers posed by the disease.
Immigrant advocates and some lawmakers have been calling for ICE to take a similar approach, warning that deadly consequences could result if the disease spreads in ICE facilities that have long faced criticism for how they handle even routine medical care.
Deport them faster says CIS!
Advocates’ campaigns for immigration detainees to be released have drawn sharp criticism from organizations that support the government’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Some have argued the US should instead increase the pace of deportations to lower the number of people detained.
Test and Remove Alien Detainees as Quickly as Possible
Don’t let them stack up like cord wood, and don’t release them into the streets of America
Sounds like a good idea to me! If they want to be with their families, the families can join them in Mexico, Central America or wherever else they came from.
