Posted: 2/20/2007 1:49:11 PM

By: Flat Electronic Data Interchange

Indictment and lawsuit against Flat Electronic Data Interchange in thread at ALAF. Will get Complaint for civil lawsuit posted shortly. Indictment repeated after link to ALAF.

http://www.alabamaagainstfraud.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=2837#2837

Note: Possible errors due to PDF to TEXT translation

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
07CRIM.0115

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

-v.-

ABDUL TAWALA IBN ALI ALISHTARI,
a/k/a "Michael Mixon,"

Defendant.

COUNT ONE
(Financing Terrorism)

The Grand Jury charges:
1. From at least in or about June 2006, up to and including in or about December 2006, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, ABDUL TAWALA IBN ALI ALISHTARI, a/k/a "Michael Mixon," the defendant, and others known and unknown, where the offense did take place in the United States and was directed toward the carrying out of a predicate act outside the United States, and within the United States, the offense and the predicate act were conducted in, and the results thereof affected, interstate and foreign commerce, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly, directly and indirectly did attempt to provide and collect funds with the intention that such funds be used, and with the knowledge that such funds were to be used, in full and in part, in order to carry out an act intended to cause death and serious bodily injury to a civilian, and to any other person not taking an active part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the purpose of such act, by its nature and context, was to intimidate a population, and to compel a government and an international organization to do and to abstain from doing any act, to wit, ALISHTARI, in exchange for payment, transferred and concealed the transfer of approximately $152,000 in funds that he believed were being sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan to be used to support a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan by, among other things, funding the purchase of equipment such as nightvision goggles.
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2339C & 2.)

COUNT TWO
(Material Support of Terrorism)
The Grand Jury further charges:
2. From at least in or about June 2006, up to and including in or about December 2006, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, ABDUL TAWALA IBN ALI ALISHTARI, a/k/a "Michael Mixon," the defendant, and others known and unknown, unlawfully and knowingly did attempt to provide "material support or resources," as that term is defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b), namely, currency, monetary instruments, financial securities, financial services, and expert advice or assistance, and conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, and ownership of material support or resources, knowing that they were to be used in preparation for, and in carrying out, a violation of an offense listed in 18 U.S.C. § 2332b(g)(5)(B), to wit, financing terrorism, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339C, to wit, ALISHTARI, in exchange for payment, attempted to transfer and conceal the transfer of approximately $152,000 in funds that he believed were being sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan to be used to support a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan by, among other things, funding the purchase of equipment such as nightvision goggles. (Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2339A & 2.)

COUNT THREE
(Money Laundering)
The Grand Jury further charges:
3. On or about August 17, 2006, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, ABDUL TAWALA IBN ALI ALISHTARI, a/k/a "Michael Mixon," the defendant, in an offense involving and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, unlawfully, wilfully and knowingly did transport, transmit, and transfer, and attempt to transport, transmit, and transfer, monetary instruments and funds from a place in the United States to and through a place outside the United States, to wit, ALISHTARI caused the transfer of approximately $25,000 from a bank account in New York to a bank account in Montreal, Canada,
with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity, to wit, providing material support to terrorists in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339A.
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1956(a)(2)(A) and 2.)

COUNT FOUR
(Wire Fraud Conspiracy)
The Grand Jury further charges:
4. From at least in or about 1998, up to and including in or about 2004, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, ABDUL TAWALA IBN ALI ALISHTARI, a/k/a "Michael Mixon," the defendant, and others known and unknown, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit offenses against the United States, to wit, to violate Section 1343 of Title 18, United States Code.
5. It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that ABDUL TAWALA IBN ALI ALISHTARI, a/k/a "Michael Mixon," the defendant, and others known and unknown, unlawfully, willfully and knowingly, having devised and intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud, and for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, would and did transmit and cause to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, and television communication in interstate
and foreign commerce, a writing, sign, signal, picture and sound for the purpose of executing such scheme and artifice, to wit, ALISHTARI administered and promoted a fraudulent loan investment program known as the "Flat Electronic Data Interchange" ("FEDI") through which ALISHTARI and others fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in investments from various individuals by falsely promising high, guaranteed rates of return, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343.
(Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349.)

COUNT FIVE
(Wire Fraud)
The Grand Jury further charges:
6. From in or about 1998, up to and including in or about 2004, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, ABDUL TAWALA IBN ALI ALISHTARI, a/k/a "Michael Mixon," the defendant, having devised and intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud, and for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, unlawfully, willfully and knowingly did transmit and cause to be transmitted by means of wire communication in interstate and foreign commerce, writings, signs, signals and sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme and artifice, to wit, ALISHTARI administered and promoted a fraudulent loan
investment program known as FEDI through which ALISHTARI and others fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in investments firom various individuals by falsely promising high, guaranteed rates of return.
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1343 and 2.)

MICHAEL J. GARCIA
United States Attorney

Posted: 2/20/2007 1:01:04 PM

By: Hunter

Link to Original Press Release. Any errors in one posted are due to PDF to TEXT translation.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/February07/alishtariarrestpr.pdf

United States Attorney
Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 16, 2007

CONTACT: U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE YUSILL SCRIBNER, REBEKAH CARMICHAEL PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE (212) 637-2600
FBI
NEIL DONOVAN, JAMES MARGOLIN PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE (212) 384-2715, 2720
NYPD
PAUL BROWNE
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
(646) 610-8800

U.S. ARRESTS WESTCHESTER MAN FOR TERRORISM FINANCING AND PERPETRATING MASSIVE INVESTMENT FRAUD
of ty
MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, MARK J. MERSHON, the Assistant
Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau Investigation ("FBI"), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the New York Ci Police Commissioner, announced today the arrest of ABDUL TAWALA IBN ALI ALISHTARI, a/k/a "Michael Mixon," on attempt charqes of terrorism financing material support of terrorism, and international money laundering, as well as additional charges of conspiracy and wire fraud. According to the five-count Indictment, which was unsealed in Manhattan federal court earlier today:
ALISHTARI, a 53-year-old resident of Ardsley, New York, facilitated the transfer of $152,000 with the intention that it be used in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help train terrorists. Specifically, in the latter half of 2006, ALISHTARI accepted payment to discreetly transfer these funds, believincr that they were earmarked for Pakistan and Afghanistan. ALISHTARI believed that the funds were beincr sent abroad to support a terrorism training camp in Afghanistan by funding the purchase of equipment such as night vision goggles. One of these transfers, which is also the subiect of the international money launderincr charcre in the indictment, relates to ALISHTARI’s transfer of $25!oOO from a with the intent that the funds be used to provide material support
From approximately 1998 through 2004, ALISHTARI committed a massive fraud in which he stole millions of dollars from his victims through the operation of a loan investment program he called the "Flat Electronic Data Interchange" ("FEDI"). FEDI was purportedly a high-yield investment scheme, in which ALISHTARI falsely promised his investors that, in exchange for their investment, they would received high, guaranteed rates of return, according to the Indictment.
ALISHTARI was arrested yesterday in New York, New York. If convicted, ALISHTARI faces a maximum sentence of 95 years’ imprisonment. ALISHTARI is expected to be arraigned on the Indictment this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge RONALD L. ELLIS. The case has been assigned to United States District Judge ALVIN K. HELLERSTEIN.
Mr. GARCIA praised the efforts of the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI and the New York City Police Department, and thanked the Securities and Exchange Commission for their assistance in the investigation.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Assistant United States Attorneys JONATHAN S. KOLODNER and ANJAN SAHNI are in charge of the prosecution.
07-041