EH store owner admits evading cash reporting
By Alex Wood
Journal Inquirer
Published: Monday, September 8, 2008 11:00 AM EDT
An illegal immigrant from Pakistan who arranged the deposit of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash into his East Hartford convenience store’s bank account in less than six months pleaded guilty Friday to evading federal reporting requirements for such cash transactions, federal prosecutors announced.

But by taking full responsibility for the crime, the immigrant, Mohammad Ghouse, 44, succeeded in sparing his wife, Kathryn Emilia, further criminal prosecution.

The couple operated the Candy Farms convenience store at 399 Main St. in East Hartford. The store was closed Sunday evening but appeared to be in business, as lights in the entryway and on coolers were on.

Senior Judge Peter C. Dorsey, who sits in U.S. District Court in New Haven, on Friday granted a motion by federal prosecutors to dismiss the charges against Emilia, Acting U.S. Attorney Nora R. Dannehy said.

Prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges against Emilia after Ghouse admitted in writing that his wife made cash deposits in the store’s Webster Bank account at his direction and that he didn’t tell her that the purpose was to cause the bank not to file required reports.

Emilia gave birth to Ghouse’s child two weeks ago, prosecutor Susan L. Wines said in the motion to dismiss the indictment against Emilia. Moreover, Emilia received counseling at the Intercommunity Mental Health Center in East Hartford last year and, until she became pregnant, took prescribed medication for anxiety and depression, the prosecutor added.

Ghouse and federal prosecutors agreed that federal sentencing guidelines call for him to receive a prison sentence in the range of 30 to 37 months, 2½ to just over three years, and to be fined $6,000 to $60,000.

But, as a result of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the guidelines are no longer mandatory. The agreement appears to leave Ghouse’s lawyer, Kurt F. Zimmerman of New Haven, free to seek a lower sentence, and Dorsey is known for being more sympathetic to such pleas than many other federal judges in Connecticut.

Ghouse’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 21 in the New Haven federal court.

Federal law requires banks to file a “currency transaction reportâ€