Here is the latest story, he was a one-time Federal informant.
Statesman.com - One-time informant pleads guilty to other crimes (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/20/20fraud.html)
Convenience store operator defrauded credit card customers.
By Steven Kreytak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, January 20, 2007
An Austin convenience store operator admitted Friday in federal court that he collected credit card information from hundreds of customers and made charges to their accounts without their consent.
Muhammad Aslam, a 31-year-old native of Pakistan, admitted that from April 2004 to August 2006 he illegally used 250 credit cards to steal $105,000 at three stores he operated: the Convenient Food Mart at 6710 Loyola Lane, Corner Quick Stop at 1425 E. 12th St., and Austin Food Mart at 7612 Bluff Springs Road. For part of that time Aslam also was a federal informant.
Court records show that Aslam kept the charges under $25 because credit card companies generally pursue fraud complaints only for amounts larger than that, U.S. Secret Service Agent Jason Trolinder testified at a pretrial hearing last year.
"He would purposefully make these manual entries as near to the original charge as possible in an attempt to avoid sending up any red flags with the customer who used the credit card," Trolinder said.
In some cases, Aslam targeted people who bought alcohol at the convenience stores while appearing intoxicated, believing they wouldn't remember whether charges were legitimate or not, Trolinder testified.
Police said that anyone who suspects fraudulent charges to a credit card should contact them and the credit card company.
Aslam pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Austin to credit card fraud and money laundering. Under his agreement with federal prosecutors, which must be approved by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, Aslam will face no more than six years in prison, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Gardner. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.
"Your honor, I am not a perfect man," Aslam told Austin after his plea, hoping to be released on bail. "I'm human. I did what I did, and I want to learn from it."
Austin set Aslam's bail at $100,000 and required that $25,000 be paid in cash. Aslam failed to post bail Friday and will remain in federal custody at least through the weekend.
According to court records, Aslam came to the United States in 1997 and became a naturalized citizen after marrying Diana Aquino, a citizen, about five years ago. The couple has a 4-year-old child.
In 2003, Aslam became a federal informant, ratting on some associates to help FBI and IRS agents make their case in a multi-million-dollar illegal gambling and money laundering investigation that targeted a network of game rooms and convenience stores in Austin, according to federal court testimony.
In exchange for immunity in the case, Aslam told the agents about the convenience stores he operated that were owned by Tariq Majeed, who has since been indicted, along with 14 others in the case, an FBI agent testified last year.
But as the investigation progressed, authorities began to suspect Aslam was involved in a bevy of other criminal activity.
What is unclear in Aslam's case is whether his cooperation with the FBI and IRS drew authorities' attention to his other crimes. The Majeed investigation was led by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, while Aslam's investigation was led by a state and local financial crimes task force. FBI agent Timothy Stephens testified last year that Aslam was an informant until September 2005.
The federal charges came in August.
As part of the plea deal, investigators agreed not to pursue charges in federal and state court related to other crimes they suspected Aslam committed. According to court documents and testimony, he is suspected of frequently buying stolen gasoline, cigarettes, alcohol and other goods to sell at his stores. Since 2002 he has reported just $1.1 million in receipts for sales tax purposes to the state comptroller, even though more than $8 million went in and out of his bank accounts in that time, the documents show.
Some of that cash was sent to Pakistan, where Aslam has family, court documents show. It is unclear how it was spent.
International money transfers are closely watched by federal authorities, and money wired to Pakistan by Majeed and his associates led federal agents to launch the gambling investigation in 2003.
In late 2005, authorities seized about 700 video gaming machines and thousands of documents from game rooms and convenience stores — including two run by Aslam. Majeed and his associates, who were indicted last year, are accused of illegally paying cash as winnings at those machines.
While some low-level defendants have struck plea agreements in case, Majeed and most others are awaiting trial.
As part of the plea agreement in his case, Aslam agreed to forfeit to the government about $235,000, a list of merchandise either stolen or bought with stolen proceeds, including cases of condoms and cigars, and his house on Bluffwood Place in Round Rock, appraised at almost $300,000.
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