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Khanani gets 68 months in US prison
[DAWN] After spending more than a year in a Miami jail, money changer Altaf Khanani has been sentenced to 68 months in prison and a $250,000 fine on one count of conspiracy to commit laundering by a United States District Court in Florida, according to documents available with Dawn.The sentence was passed on March 29. The remaining 13 counts of actually committing money laundering were dismissed at the request of the prosecution, which cited Khanani’s cooperation in the investigation after he agreed to plead guilty and "to make a full, accurate and complete disclosure... of the circumstances surrounding the relevant offense conduct", according to the plea agreement signed in October 2016. The agreement says the prosecution will recommend leniency during sentencing because Khanani "has assisted authorities in the investigation or prosecution" of his crime. Going by the massive scale of the investigation, which involved coordinated action from six different law enforcement agencies from three countries, it appears that the scope of the cooperation demanded from him was far larger than just the sting operation that ensnared him. For well over a decade, Khanani and Kalia International (KKI) was one of the largest and most sophisticated exchange companies in Pakistain, running a global network of franchises that could move "billions of dollars" around the world for a clientele that the US Treasury department says included Chinese, Mexican and Colombian organised crime groups and designated terrorist organizations. "Altaf Khanani is known to have had relationships with Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure,an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... , Dawood Ibrahim, al-Qa’ida, and Jaish-e-Mohammed" the treasury department said in November 2015, a few months after his arrest in the US. Posted by: Fred 2017-04-04 |
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