Thaindian News

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) — A New York man has been charged with engaging in international illegal money transfers that funded the attempted Times Square bombing, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Mohammad Younis, 44, of Long Island, New York, was arrested Wednesday morning and indicted for operating an unlicensed money transfer business between the United States and Pakistan. One of the money transfers allegedly facilitated Faisal Shahzad, who, on June 21, pleaded guilty to a ten-count indictment charging him with crimes relating to his attempt to detonate a car bomb in Times Square on May 1.

However, there are no allegations that Younis was aware of the intended use of the funds.

Younis provided money transmitting services to individuals in the New York City area by assisting in the operation of a “hawala,” a type of informal value transfer system in which money does not physically cross international boundaries through the banking system, from January to May.

In the hawala system, funds are transferred by customers to a hawala operator, or “hawaladar,” in one country, and corresponding funds - minus any fees - are disbursed to recipients in another country by hawaladar associates on that end.

On April 10, Younis engaged in two separate hawala transactions with customers who traveled from Connecticut and New Jersey to meet with him in Long Island.

In each of the transactions, Younis provided thousands of dollars in cash to the individuals at the direction of a co-conspirator in Pakistan, but without knowledge of how the customers were planning to use the funds.

However, at no time did Younis have the license to operate a money transmitting business from either state or federal authorities.

During the course of Shahzad’s plea statements, he acknowledged receiving a cash payment in April in the U.S. to fund his preparations for attempted bombing.

According to Shahzad, the April cash payment was arranged in Pakistan by associates of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the militant extremist group based in Pakistan that trained Shahzad to make and use explosive devices.

If convicted, Younis faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each of the two charges related to the unlicensed money transmitting business.