How does a convenience store owner get $100k?

[gofaster]

I'm wondering if he's just a local conduit for someone else.  This is the same town where Sami al Arian worked.

http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBX6GAL0KE.html

FBI Arrests Man, Alleges Yemen Ties

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI  
Published: Feb 23, 2006


 
 
TAMPA - The owner of a convenience store on Sligh Avenue was arrested Wednesday after he was accused of illegally sending $53,000 to people in Yemen through a Michigan travel agency.

Authorities also accuse Hasan Qasem of illegally transferring $83,500 to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and to Luxembourg.

The FBI searched Britt's Grocery Store and arrested Qasem on charges that he sent money overseas in a manner designed to avoid government scrutiny.

Qasem's wife, Mary, said she did not know about the charges and does not know anyone in Yemen. She said she and her husband, who is of Palestinian descent, have nothing to hide. "We don't know anything," she said. "We'll have to figure it out and see what's going on."

Mary Qasem said the FBI came to the store and the couple's nearby house about 7 a.m. Wednesday and stayed until 11 a.m. searching the premises. As of late afternoon, she had not heard from her husband, who she said has lived in the area since 1977.

"We try to lead a clean life," she said.

Qasem was being held in Orient Road Jail, without bail.

FBI spokeswoman Carol Michalik said the agency's Tampa office executed search and arrest warrants in cooperation with the Detroit FBI. Michalik said no further statements would be released to the media.

According to an FBI affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, an investigation determined that Qasem structured financial transactions triggering reports to the government by financial institutions, which are required to alert the government to transactions of more than $10,000.

The affidavit by FBI Agent Matthew G. Smith says Qasem transmitted cash this way to people in the West Bank, Luxembourg and Yemen.

The affidavit lists nine wire transfers from 2002 to 2004 to Nablus in the West Bank and to Luxembourg, each for $8,500 or $9,500.

It says Qasem provided $53,000 to Arabian Horizon Travel and Tourism in Dearborn, Mich., from March to June 2004. The agency is the exclusive ticketing agent in North America for Yemen Airways, an airline owned by the Yemeni and Saudi Arabian governments, the affidavit says.

The affidavit gives several examples of what the FBI says were efforts to evade the $10,000 reporting requirement. For instance, the affidavit says Qasem purchased two checks from SunTrust Bank on March 19, 2004. The checks, purchased four minutes apart, were for $5,373 and $4,670, a total of $10,043.

Those two checks were sent to Arabian Horizon, along with a business check for $8,957, bringing the total to $19,000, for transmittal to Yemen.

An attempt to reach the travel agency late Wednesday was unsuccessful.

[AWMac]

D00D sells a lotta Slurpees.....

[FUNKED1]

Good thing we have big brother watching our money for us.  After all it's his money anyway.

[Shamus]

Originally posted by FUNKED1
Good thing we have big brother watching our money for us.  After all it's his money anyway.

Well it would seem it's not.

Now before all of you government shills start screaming "terrorist, terrorist they must be stopped at all costs", that aint it, they want the money plain and simple.

shamus

[SOB]

Trying to keep big brother out of your business.  Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

[rpm]

If he's running a moderately successful convenience store, that sounds about right for income. He just went about it wrong, he needed to incorporate offshore.

[wetrat]

The only thing this guy did wrong is get caught.

[gofaster]

The only thing he did wrong was break the law.

Major corporations transfer money overseas all the time.  They just do it through proper channels.  The fact that he deliberately tried to mask his activities makes me very, very suspicious.

[Saintaw]

You guys have it all wrong, he is sending money to the luxemburgish terrarist unions!!! TRAITOR!!!1111

[Suave]

Oh liberals!

First you should say that the DHS shouldn't be wasting their time busting people for looking at internet porn in public libraries. They should be trying to protect america from terrorists you say!

When they do bust someone who is a known arab ethnic and quite probably a muslim who is sending his money to a (HELLO) arab country discretly  via a CFC organisation, you say "oh it's just about the money".

I suppose you think google came under washington scruitney because it is an enormously wealthy company and our washington leaders wanted to get some of that right?

Typical Libs.

[rpm]

Originally posted by Suave
Oh liberals!

First you should say that the DHS shouldn't be wasting their time busting people for looking at internet porn in public libraries. They should be trying to protect america from terrorists you say!

When they do bust someone who is a known arab ethnic and quite probably a muslim who is sending his money to a (HELLO) arab country discretly  via a CFC organisation, you say "oh it's just about the money".

I suppose you think google came under washington scruitney because it is an enormously wealthy company and our washington leaders wanted to get some of that right?

Typical Libs.

So, if he was a white guy and quite probably a baptist sending his money there would be no problem?

[AWMac]

Originally posted by rpm
So, if he was a white guy and quite probably a baptist sending his money there would be no problem?

I knew it was gonna be long til someone played the baptist white guy card!

Mac

[Suave]

Originally posted by rpm
So, if he was a white guy and quite probably a baptist sending his money there would be no problem?

I don't know. Why don't you call your Jesus hating friends at the ACLU and ask them?

[Shamus]

Originally posted by rpm
So, if he was a white guy and quite probably a baptist sending his money there would be no problem?

No he would be a drug dealer, same end result, grab the money.

shamus