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http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0404/26/metro-134000.htm
Grand jury indicts 12 Dearborn residents in credit card fraud scheme
Associated Press
DETROIT -- A grand jury has indicted 12 Dearborn residents on fraud charges stemming from what the government described as a scheme to avoid paying about $1.7 million in credit card balances.
Charges in the 21-count indictment include bank fraud, bankruptcy fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and mail fraud, the U.S. attorney's office said Monday in a statement. It stemmed from a five-year investigation that is ongoing.
eginning in March 1999 ... the defendants conspired to defraud multiple banks and other issuers of credit cards, the statement read. The ... card holders subsequently declared bankruptcy so that creditors
co
ld not collect.
The government
says two of those named in the indictment used businesses, Sigma Distribution Inc. and Byblous Distribution Investment Inc., to process credit card transactions that the other defendants did not plan on playing.
After credit card companies paid the businesses, the indictment claims Ali Abdul Karim Farhat, 40, and Abdulamir Berro, 36, kept a portion of the money and gave the rest to those who had the cards. The defendants with cards later declared bankruptcy, prosecutors said, to avoid payment.
The defendants all are family members or related by marriage, the U.S. attorney's office said, and nine, including Berro, share a last name. Farhat's brother, Hassan Abdul Karim Farhat, also is named in the indictment.
The Farhat brothers ha
d been arrested Jan. 19 on drug trafficking charges, and the government said at the time it suspected them of ties to the Hezbollah terrorist group. But that complaint against them was dismissed
in
Febr
uary after
its was learned the FBI relied on
conversations it now says were staged by a longtime informant.
The U.S. attorney's office said the fraud indictment wasn't related to the drug case.
A message seeking comment was left Monday with a lawyer who previously represented the Farhat brothers. There was no area telephone listing for Byblous Distribution and no answer at a telephone listing for Berro.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0404/26/metro-134000.htm
Grand jury indicts 12 Dearborn residents in credit card fraud scheme
Associated Press
DETROIT -- A grand jury has indicted 12 Dearborn residents on fraud charges stemming from what the government described as a scheme to avoid paying about $1.7 million in credit card balances.
Charges in the 21-count indictment include bank fraud, bankruptcy fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and mail fraud, the U.S. attorney's office said Monday in a statement. It stemmed from a five-year investigation that is ongoing.
eginning in March 1999 ... the defendants conspired to defraud multiple banks and other issuers of credit cards, the statement read. The ... card holders subsequently declared bankruptcy so that creditors
co
ld not collect.
The government
says two of those named in the indictment used businesses, Sigma Distribution Inc. and Byblous Distribution Investment Inc., to process credit card transactions that the other defendants did not plan on playing.
After credit card companies paid the businesses, the indictment claims Ali Abdul Karim Farhat, 40, and Abdulamir Berro, 36, kept a portion of the money and gave the rest to those who had the cards. The defendants with cards later declared bankruptcy, prosecutors said, to avoid payment.
The defendants all are family members or related by marriage, the U.S. attorney's office said, and nine, including Berro, share a last name. Farhat's brother, Hassan Abdul Karim Farhat, also is named in the indictment.
The Farhat brothers ha
d been arrested Jan. 19 on drug trafficking charges, and the government said at the time it suspected them of ties to the Hezbollah terrorist group. But that complaint against them was dismissed
in
Febr
uary after
its was learned the FBI relied on
conversations it now says were staged by a longtime informant.
The U.S. attorney's office said the fraud indictment wasn't related to the drug case.
A message seeking comment was left Monday with a lawyer who previously represented the Farhat brothers. There was no area telephone listing for Byblous Distribution and no answer at a telephone listing for Berro.