A Bronx man and a New Jersey man have each been sentenced to three years in prison for running an unlicensed money transfer business responsible for illicitly transferring more than $65 million between the United States and countries in the Middle East, including Yemen, Turkey, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, federal officials announced on Wednesday, April 23.

 

Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced Wednesday that Mohanad Al-Zubaidi of New Jersey and Shaker Saleh Mohammed Hauter of The Bronx were each sentenced to three years in prison after previously pleading guilty on Jan. 15, before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, who imposed the sentence on April 22.

 

“Mohanad Al-Zubaidi and Shaker Saleh Mohammed Hauter ran an underground financial network that illegally transferred tens of millions of dollars between the United States and the Middle East,” Clayton said. “The sentences imposed yesterday send a clear message that those who operate these unlawful financing networks will be held accountable.”

 

According to the indictment, plea agreements, and statements made in court, Al-Zubaidi and Hauter ran the unlicensed money transfer business between in or about 2018 through at least in or about 2022. The court heard that they facilitated hundreds of illicit money transfers, with each transfer ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

For the illicit transactions they completed, Al-Zubaidi and Hauter typically earned a commission of between one and six percent of the total amount transferred, and to facilitate the transfers, they worked with other members of an international network of money brokers to transfer money through an informal money transmitting system known as “hawala,” which is frequently used by money launderers and other criminals to transfer criminal proceeds abroad.

 

In addition to the prison terms, Al-Zubaidi, 37, of Piscataway, New Jersey, and Hauter, 52, of The Bronx were both sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay forfeiture of $385,000 and $430,000, respectively.

 

Clayton praised what he described as the outstanding investigative work of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and U.S. Postal Inspection Service. He also recognized the assistance of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

 

The prosecution was handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York’s general crimes unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew J. King and Amanda C. Weingarten led the prosecution.