Debbie Schlussel: Religion of Plastic: Credit Card Jihadist Sentenced; Apparent Hezbo Connection
This is from a deliberately tiny, tiny blurb in today's Detroit Free Press:
DEARBORN: Credit car scammer gets 74 months, fine, lossThe last of 17 defendants indicted in a scheme that defrauded banks and credit card companies of $3 million was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison.
U.S. District Judge John O'Meara sentenced Ali Abdul Karim Farhat, 42, of Dearborn to 74 months in prison and ordered him to repay $669,125. Farhat also must forfeit his business and $72,621 in cash. The sentence starts immediately.
Farhat, one of three ringleaders, pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges.
Of course, what it doesn't say is his religion or that of the other 16 defendants. You guessed it: The "Religion of Plastic, er . . . Peace." What it also doesn't say is where the money went. Farhat and others defrauded credit card companies and department stores out of millions of dollars in merchandise which they charged on credit cards, never paid the card companies for, and then sold for cash on the black market.
Federal agents believe they sent some of the money "back home," likely to Hezbollah.
Just details not important enough to publish in a cowed Detroit newspaper near Dearbornistan.
Posted by Debbie on February 22, 2007 10:54 AM to Debbie Schlussel