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Tuesday, July 23, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

TERRORISM INVESTIGATION: Task force looks at check scam

Seven charged with possessing fraudulent securities

Terrorism investigators have opened an inquiry into whether a check scam in Las Vegas is linked to terrorism, federal officials confirmed Monday.

Daron Borst, a special agent with the FBI's Las Vegas office, said the inquiry is being conducted by the Southern Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"The case is being investigated for any terrorism links," said Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas.

The inquiry originates from a June federal indictment in Las Vegas that charges seven men with possessing fraudulent securities. According to court records, Las Vegas police and the U.S. Secret Service uncovered a complex scheme to cash fraudulent cashier's checks at the MGM Grand.

The checks were for large sums of money and were drawn on a nonexistent branch of the West America Bank in Pomona, Calif.

On Wednesday, a man named Omar Shishani was arrested at the Detroit Metropolitan airport while in possession of $12 million in fraudulent cashier's checks. The checks, according to a federal affidavit filed in Michigan, were also drawn on the bogus West America bank branch in Pomona.

The Washington Post reported that Shishani's name appears on a terrorism watch list and that his name is also listed in documents seized during U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

Of the seven men charged in the Las Vegas check case, the Review-Journal was able to confirm Monday that at least three have backgrounds that would feasibly pique the interest of anti-terrorism investigators.

For example, one of the two suspected leaders of the check cashing scheme is Aziz Massomipour, who is of Persian heritage and may hail from Iran, although his citizenship status in the United States was not immediately known Monday.

During an initial court appearance, Massomipour was released on his own recognizance. He failed to show up for subsequent proceedings and is a fugitive. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

His attorney, Brian Fisher, did not return phone calls seeking comment Monday.

In court documents, Massomipour said he is self-employed and lists a Los Angeles home address.

Another co-defendant, Jamal Khan, originally hails from Pakistan, according to court documents. The documents state that, although the Southern California resident speaks English, he requested that for future court hearings, he have an interpreter who can interpret proceedings for him in a Pakistani dialect.

Khan's attorney, Paul Wommer, confirmed the Pakistani heritage and said he seriously doubts Khan could have any potential link to terrorism. Khan is a 43-year--old college graduate with two children. He currently is in federal custody on an immigration hold.

"In the criminal complaint, there is not even a hint of any relation to terrorism," Wommer said.

A third defendant, Mohammad Nadery, 63, of Los Angeles, has requested a court translator for a dialect commonly spoken in Afghanistan, according to court records. His attorney said Nadery has been in the United States since 1984 and he has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1990.

"I would be very surprised if there was any connection whatsoever with the Detroit incident," attorney Scott Bindrup said.

According to online records, Nadery once listed a residence in Diamond Bar, Calif., a city near Pomona that Shishani at one point in his life listed as a residence. A connection between Shishani and Nadery has not been established by federal officials.

Shishani currently lists Dearborn, Mich., as his place of residence.

Another man charged in the Las Vegas case, Jimmy Leung, 32, is a native of China and is in federal custody. His defense attorney could not be reached for comment Monday. Neither could the attorney for defendant Asatour Magzanian of Los Angeles, a U.S. citizen believed to be of Armenian heritage.

Two other co-defendants are Hans Walton, 41, and Henry Davis, 52. Davis' attorney, John McNicholas, said Davis is American-born and raised. He has no criminal history.

"This whole al-Qaida connection sounds like fantasy," McNicholas said. "Until we see real facts, to me, it sounds like something you would read in a fictional novel."

Walton attorney Robert Draskovich also suspects any terrorism link is far-fetched, saying his client has told him he was simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

This is not the first time that a probe into terrorism has been linked to Las Vegas. Following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, it was revealed that five of the hijackers -- including ringleader Mohamed Atta -- had come to Las Vegas in the months preceding the attacks.

The exact purpose of those visits is still not clear.

According to federal documents, the check cashing case was first uncovered by two Las Vegas police intelligence detectives through a confidential informant. A detective, posing undercover as a casino host, eventually gained the trust of Leung and Massomipour. The detective convinced the two that he could arrange the cashing of the cashier's checks at the MGM, according to the court records.

The seven men were eventually arrested, many of them during a sting at the Strip resort. Some of the men were described as low-level "passers," meaning they were being used to cash the checks.

Some of the men also had elaborate fake identities that contained the names of real individuals in California "with good credit," according to the court records.

Las Vegas police Deputy Chief Bill Young, who oversees the police Intelligence Division, said given some of the facts of the case, police immediately began working with federal officials to probe any potential terrorism links.

"There was curiosity and it would not surprise me if there ends up being a link," Young said. "There is not a day that goes by that we aren't working with federal law enforcement officers on terrorism."