Another Little Noticed Victory for the USG

By Bill West

Outside of central Florida (Orlando), there will be little attention paid to a ruling just handed down by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The case involves the criminal conviction appeals of two defendants convicted in 2004 of Federal immigration and tax fraud. The defendants, Mohammed Saleem Khanani and David Portlock, were associates of now deceased Palestinian-American millionaire businessman Jesse Maali. Maali made his fortune in the Orlando area catering to the tourist sales industry. Khanani had been Maali's partner and Portlock their accountant. They were all indicted, including Maali, on various immigration and tax violations that included charges stemming from their business operation knowingly hiring illegal aliens, including aliens from Middle East countries. Maali died of cancer just before going to trial.

Khanani and Portlock appealed their convictions and sentences. They lost at the Federal Circuit Court level. Khanani has been free pending the appeal and it remains unclear if he will now be ordered returned to custody to complete his six year term. Portlock was sentenced to four years. The defendants may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but their attorneys have not indicated if any further legal action is expected.

The investigation and prosecution was a major multi-agency immigration, money laundering and tax violation case at the time. Shortly after the arrests, the lead Assistant U.S. Attorney in Orlando commented in a detention hearing there were suspicious financial links to foreign terrorist organizations. The Government never publicly produced such evidence in the case, but succeeded in obtaining convictions against the indicted principals, but for the deceased Maali.

There was at least one "open" noteworthy link in the case, though it received little public notice. This was Professor Hussam Abujbara. Abujbara was a longtime associate of Sami Al-Arian and helped Al-Arian establish the Islamic Concern Project, a front for support activities on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), in Tampa in the late 1980s. Abujbara later moved to Orlando where, for a time, he worked for Jesse Maali's organization before eventually going to work as a computer science instructor (same as Al-Arian) at the University of Central Florida. Abujbara was subsequently convicted of felony immigration fraud and then deported circa 2004. Abujbara's linkage to radical Islamists did not end with the Al-Arian crew, but extended to individuals with direct connections to the Holy Land Foundation, the alleged Hamas-support charity front now awaiting a trial verdict in Dallas, as well as others.

While the Government presented no evidence or charges the defendants in the Maali-related case were involved in any terrorism or terror support activities, the Government did prove the criminal case it sought to make. Convictions stemming from the indictment were the result and now those convictions have been upheld on appeal. The fact the indicted defendants at one time employed a person who himself, at approximately the same time in a separate case, was convicted of immigration fraud and was closely linked to a now convicted terror supporter, wherein other associates in Tampa were convicted of immigration and tax fraud and deported for immigration law violations (such as Al-Arian's brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar and his wife and leading PIJ operative Bashir Nafi), may all be simple coincidence subject to further speculation. In any event, the Government officials responsible for bringing the Orlando case to fruition deserve commendation. Job well done!

TrackBack