Pakistani National Pleads Guilty in Terrorism Financing Scheme

Posted in: Jim Kouri, NewsWire
By Jim Kouri
Monday, February 09, 2009 - 9:27:03 AM ET

Imdad Ullah Ranjha, age 34, a Pakistani national residing in Glen Burnie, Maryland, pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money remitting business, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to his guilty plea, Imdad Ranjha worked at Hamza, Inc., a money remitter business in the District of Columbia operated by co-defendant Saifullah Ranjha (S. Ranjha). Saifullah Anjum Ranjha, age 45, a Pakistani national residing in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and to concealing terrorist financing and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

A cooperating witness, acting at the direction of law enforcement, gave S. Ranjha and his associates a total of $2,208,000 in government funds in order to transfer the monies abroad through an informal money transfer system called a “hawala,â€