Multi-million dollar Muslim food stamp fraud busts in Illinois, Nevada and Utah

Three separate cases mind you, all courtesy of the invaluable Refugee Resettlement Watch website.

First up Utah, 12 food stamp fraud arrests linked to 2 Ogden stores

OGDEN — A pair of federal indictments unsealed Tuesday allege a dozen people linked to two Ogden convenience stores participated in an elaborate food stamp scam that netted about $8.6 million in USDA benefits.

The stores named in the indictment handed down by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City are Westside Valley Market, 873 W. 24th St., and 9th Street Corner Market, 1390 9th St.

Individuals arrested in connection with Westside Valley Market include:

• Zia Atta, 38, of Ogden.

• Aweas Akbar Al-Quadri, 21, of Ogden.

• Naseer Hamad Durani, 39, of Rocklin, Calif.

• Farad Said Farani, 36, of Ogden.

• Mariana Navarro Farani, 29, of Ogden.

• Seraj Ghasem Pour Babakandi, 23, of West Haven.

•  Shershah Lodin, 39, of Pittsburg, Calif.

Those arrested in connection with 9th Street Corner Market include Atta and:

• Masood Aziz, 36, of Elk Grove, Calif.

• Diana Funez, 19, of Ogden.

• Fidel Funez-Limon, 18, of Ogden.

• Sharara Haidari, 30, of Elk Grove, Calif.

• Siavosh Sabri, 41, of Salt Lake City.

The stores are also named as defendants in the indictment.

The defendants face multiple counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; wire fraud; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Benefits Program fraud; access device fraud; conspiracy to commit money laundering; and money laundering.

The defendants from Utah will make their first appearance in federal court today. If convicted, they face prison sentences ranging from five to 20 years on most of the charges and fines of $250,000.

Federal prosecutors are seeking the seizure of homes in Elk Grove, Thornton and Marysville, Calif.; a home and commercial property in Ogden; several bank accounts; and judgments totaling $7.7 million.

Next up Nevada, Bath salts sales and food stamp fraud earn Reno business owner a trip to prison

A local college student has surrendered to federal authorities to begin serving a six-month prison term related to selling illegal bath salts out of his family’s Reno liquor store and engaging in food stamp fraud at the business.

Nevada U.S. Chief District Court Judge Robert C. Jones sentenced Asowadur Khan, 30, in October. Jones ordered Khan to pay $120,000 in restitution for the money he scammed from the government in the food stamp fraud between 2009 and 2011.

Khan was arrested in February during an undercover investigation by Drug Enforcement Administration investigators at Nahar Food and Discount Liquor, 600 South Virginia St. Khan owned the store with family members.

Khan was booked into the Washoe County jail on Friday and is awaiting transport to federal prison.

Third, in Illinois, Waukegan Grocery Owners Admit Food Stamp Fraud

CHICAGO (CBS) – The owners of a Waukegan grocery store have admitted to stealing nearly $850,000 from the federal food stamp program.

Next up, sentencing for Khaled Saleh and his wife, Fatima, who ran the Sunset Food Market, 1501 Sunset Ave.

 Federal prosecutors are pushing for 2.5 years in prison.

On thousands of occasions, the couple illegally provided cash to customers who made fake purchases on their LINK food stamp cards.

The store owners typically split every dollar 50-50 with the customers — and kept the rest as profit, prosecutors said.

The pair ran the scheme between August 2009 and April 2011, prosecutors said.

More details on all these arrests and many more at RRW.

Utah Christians buy, donate Korans

O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends… ~Holy Koran 5:052

Dhimmitude is bliss. via Quran giveaway fortifies Utah Christian, Muslim bond | The Salt Lake Tribune.

At a time when Muslim and Christian relations are again in the world’s spotlight, Utah women in the two faith traditions are beginning a friendship they hope will lead to greater understanding.

Over platters of falafel, biryani rice, hummus and baklava, the women of Salt Lake City’s Wasatch Presbyterian Church and eight women from the Muslim community on Thursday traded hugs, personal stories, recipes and email addresses.

The luncheon — prepared in Muslim homes and shared at the church — was a thank-you from the Muslim women, who were delighted by Wasatch’s giveaway earlier this week of free copies of the Quran, Islam’s holy book.

“You,” said Angela Young, a convert to Islam, “extended the first hand.”

What are the chances any of the Muslim women risk death by apostasy and convert out of Islam?

The giveaway of nearly 70 books resulted from a suggestion two weeks ago by Wasatch’s new pastor, the Rev. Scott Dalgarno, that church leaders put money behind their belief that education informs faith. It also was a response to a Florida preacher’s burning of the Quran in March, an act that triggered riots and dozens of deaths in Afghanistan.

Church leaders chipped in $600 and ordered copies of the Quran through The King’s English Bookshop on Salt Lake City’s east side. They asked the store to give them away.

The books were gone within 90 minutes of being placed on the shelf Monday morning, just hours after the world learned of the killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden, whose legacy has led to suspicion, isolation and even bigotry against Muslims.

The timing was serendipitous, said Anne Holman, manager of the bookstore, who had decided last Friday to begin the giveaway Monday morning.

The Muslim women will be buying Bibles and Torah’s and distributing in Dearborn shortly. /sarc off

Utah: Taxpayer funded Islamist school loses money, stays open (updated)

Bowing to Islamists again, at taxpayer expense. (Note: title is not to suggest public charter schools are in business to make money, rather that a similar school that was draining tax payer funds would not have been re-opened after being shut, and suddenly had loans forgiven), via Charter board reverses decision to close Beehive Academy | Deseret News.

SALT LAKE CITY — The State Charter School Board reversed its decision Thursday to shut down a Holladay school that some believe is hiding ties to a controversial Islamic political movement.

The board originally voted to terminate Beehive Science & Technology Academy’s operating contract on April 29, for chronic financial mismanagement. Following a two-day hearing with Beehive, the board voted to keep the tax-funded school open. The board will determine the condition of Beehive’s probation on July 15.

Beehive, which serves students in seventh through 12th grades, first came under scrutiny in July 2009, when a group of teachers and parents approached the State Office of Education with concerns that the school was operating as part of a nationwide network of charters controlled by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Muslim preacher who resides in Pennsylvania. While Gulen is known to many as the nonviolent face of Islam, others believe he is practicing “silent jihad” by quietly infiltrating foreign education systems. Though the State Charter School Board eventually determined Beehive was not preaching Islam in the classroom, the complaints spurred a six-month investigation that turned up a tangle of money problems. Beehive started the school year $33,000 in debt, stuck in a building lease that administrators couldn’t afford to pay. Board members criticized the school for relying on high-interest personal loans to support day-to-day operations, as well as paying out more than $53,000 to bring teachers from Turkey to Utah.

Marlies Burns, State Charter School director, said the board decided not to close the school because “the law is extremely vague.” Though Utah Code gives the charter board power to shut down a school for “failure to meet generally accepted standards of fiscal management,” the statute does not specifically define what constitutes “accepted.”

“There is reason to believe the law could be interpreted differently by different people,” Burns said.

David Jordan, Beehive’s attorney, said the school has “significantly improved” its financial situation. Cost-cutting measures and fundraising have “more than taken care of” Beehive’s problems, he said. Administrators have renegotiated the school’s lease. All of the school’s personal loans — which total about $90,000 — have been forgiven.

Non-violent face of stealth jihad? The school had personal loans? From whom? For what? Who forgave them? More on Gulen in
Fethullah Gülen’s Grand Ambition

Update: A few links from a reader in the Comments section – read her comments and check the links below for more insight.

Previous Creeping Sharia posts on the Gulen movement infiltrating U.S. schools:

Tucson: Parents concerned about charter school run by Turkish Islamist movement

Infiltrating the U.S. Through Charter Schools?

Saylorsburg, PA: Another militant Islamic training compound in U.S.

Former Utah resident & terror suspect in Iraq may be free to return to US soon

Even though the U.S. wants Iraqi and Jordanian law to handle this matter, wouldn’t it be prudent to revoke this guys U.S. citizenship, visa, and passport? Two brothers in the U.S. were convicted on financial charges, suspected of funding terrorism, and other family members are under surveillance. Surprise too, he came to the U.S. on a student visa!

The military and its attorneys at the Department of Justice contend, however, that Omar gave refuge to terrorists and regularly visited Baghdad hotels to entice foreigners to return to his home, where they would be kidnapped for ransom.

American military officials suggested that one wild card in the case is Jordan, where Omar maintains joint citizenship and where his four wives, including South Dakota native Sandra Omar, currently live. Omar reportedly has been indicted there alongside al-Zarqawi — a relative by marriage, according to court documents — in a failed plot to conduct a chemical attack in Amman.

It’s possible, however unlikely, that if Omar managed to leave Iraq without being arrested in Jordan he could return to the United States. The Kuwaiti-born Omar immigrated to the U.S. in 1979 and temporarily served in the Minnesota National Guard before moving to Salt Lake City in the 1980s. While in Utah he became the father of two daughters and gained U.S. citizenship in 1986.

While a number of family members remain in Utah, several appear to have been under close surveillance by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Two of Omar’s brothers were arrested in 2006 on felony charges of fraud and money laundering. Investigators and prosecutors initially suggested that more explosive charges might be forthcoming — saying they suspected

Sharia Alerts: Utah

Continuing in the “Creeping Sharia” series of ‘Sharia Alerts’, this episodes focus shifts to Utah. Primarily Caucasian (95%) and Mormon (60%+), could it be parts of the original Mormon ideology that attract Muslims to Utah (alcohol limits and polygamy to name two)? Consisting of less than 1% of the population (15,000 according to a Utah Muslim group), Muslims are having a significant impact in the area.

The Mosques of Utah – 9 and counting

Unindicted co conspirator linked to WTC bombing Siraj Wahaj to speak at Muslim Student’s Association Conference 2008 at The University of Utah!

Islamic Center of Utah promoting litigation jihad law school

Saudis Visit Utah, Extol ‘True’ Islam; ‘All Americans would become Muslims’

Muslim cab drivers turn break room into mosque at SLC airport

KSL stories with photos here, here, and here and while one reporter states she wouldn’t call the man who exposed the Muslim prayer room a hero (BUT he was right), those who have been intimidated by Muslims in Salt Lake City surely will

Utah Muslims Protect Violent Imam And Wife Abuser – same imam working with mayor on airport mosque prayer room; local Islamic Center may have flown him out of U.S.

Sudden Jihad Syndrome in Salt Lake City and more here -Utah killings was Jihad, report

Salt Lake cops refuse jihad concept – killer given Islamic burial in Bosnia

Breaking down barriers – i.e., converting Ute’s to Islam – videos

Utah State ignores jihad and Islamic doctrine – preach Islam to middle schoolers

Utah PhD leads Islamic Sharia training – who also reports that under sharia borrowing is permissible if it “needs to prepare an army able to carry on the responsibility of Jihad…in the lands of the unbelievers” (Instruments of Public Debt, p. 32)

Weber State hosts Utah Islamic Community web site

Arab-America’s Store: Wal-Mart submits to Sharia

Wal-mart has submitted to sharia law in Dearbornistan. Can we officially refer to them as Wally Worldistan now? Here are some highlights from the Newsweek story: (notice how Newsweek sanitizes the story with Arab in the title not Muslim)

• The Dearborn store, though, is the most extreme example of the concept [Everything involving Islam is always the most extreme, no?]
• [Walmart] hired about 35 Arabic speakers…providing ethnic-sensitivity training to the 650 employees

Small bomb hits Times Square military recruiting station

Did they rule out terrorism in the first hour yet? It’s the growing trend lately. Wait, DHS says there is no “imminent threat” to the U.S. Huh?

If you can find the original news stories for the Florida power outage, the Texas oil refinery explosion, the Illinois campus shooter, the Salt Lake City Trolley Square shooter – they all have one thing in common. Within hours, officials declared they were not related to terrorism. How can they determine that so quickly is my first question? The second question is when, upon more investigation, they find that the incident was terror-related, why doesn’t it make the news?

More on these thoughts later – I’ll try and find the original links to the items above.

Sharia Creeping in Salt Lake City, Utah

Fallout over Utah airport prayer space exposes deep tensions

Dispute over Muslim prayer room at Utah airport leads to lawsuit

- Islam is relentless…as noted in a previous post on intifada, “intifada it is, and in every community in this country, it will be”.

Mosques in Utah – some look like ordinary houses

Update: Refugees arrested importing several hundred pounds of khat in Salt Lake – older story but there must be a sizable Muslim population if there is airport sharia and khat smuggling going on