Editor's note: FEDs, don't forget the crooks on the 18th floor. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Former city comptroller Ahmad arrested in Pakistan
Amer Ahmad, comptroller, left, with Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel as Emanuel announces his finance team during a press conference at the Standard Club in Chicago. (Heather Charles, Chicago Tribune / April 20, 2011)
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Former Chicago Comptroller Amer Ahmad has been taken into custody in Pakistan, where he apparently fled ahead of his sentencing in a federal fraud case in Ohio.
Dr. Usman Anwar, director of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency in Punjab province said today that Ahmad was arrested at Lahore airport when he was trying to enter the country using a forged Mexican passport with a forged Pakistani visa.
"Our officers at the airport found that his passport and visa were forged. We also recovered his original American passport which he tried to hide. Then we searched his history on Google and found that he was guilty of fraud in US and wanted (by the) FBI," Anwar said. "We have arrested him under (a) passport and visa fraud case which carries a punishment of seven years of imprisonment in Pakistan.”
Ahmad’s apprehension comes a week after Ahmad's wife filed a request for an order of protection in Cook County Court in which she alleged he was seeking a fake passport to go to Pakistan.
The U.S. Marshals Service announced last week they were looking for Ahmad on an arrest warrant for violating terms of bail in the case, in which he pleaded guilty to participating in a kickback scheme during his time as deputy state treasurer in Ohio prior to being hired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as Chicago comptroller in 2011.
Ahmad's attorney declined Tuesday to comment on reports of Ahmad's apprehension. According to the docket in his federal case in Ohio, on March 13 Ahmad was granted an extension until April 22 to file objections to his pre-sentence report.
The U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Ohio sought an arrest warrant for Ahmad last Thursday based on what office spokesman Fred Alverson said was "credible evidence that Mr. Ahmad had violated conditions of his supervised release." A federal judge in Ohio signed the warrant Friday, and U.S. marshals began searching for Ahmad.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Squires, who has worked on the Ahmad fraud case in Ohio, declined to comment on reports he had been apprehended in Pakistan.
In a request for an order of protection she filed last Thursday in Cook County court, Ahmad's wife, Samar Ahmad, said Amer Ahmad called her Wednesday and told her to get him a fake birth certificate from Pakistan so he could get a passport. When she refused, Samar Ahmed said her husband "became irate and threatened that if I didn't do this he intimated that he would ruin or hurt me," according to the court document.
Samar Ahmed also said in the written request that she was "very concerned" her husband "will kidnap our children and take them to Pakistan."
"He believes that (he) is not guilty (and) deserves a life with the children and repeatedly gets very angry if I say anything, abusive and slapped me when we had gotten into an argument and he became irrationally angry," the request for an order of protection reads.
"He threatened to take my daughter and he told her that she would never see me or her siblings ever again and that they were going to see Allah," the document reads.
Ahmad pleaded guilty in December to bribery and a conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering and wire fraud, months after he abruptly stepped down as Emanuel's hand-picked comptroller. He was indicted weeks after he resigned.
Federal prosecutors in Ohio alleged while he was deputy state treasurer there, Ahmad gave state investment work to a former high school classmate in exchange for having $400,000 funneled to a landscaping company in which Ahmad was a part owner. An additional $123,000 was funneled through a friend and business associate of Ahmad's, prosecutors said.
Maximum prison terms for the charges range from five years to as much as 10 years, court documents show.
After Ahmad was indicted, Emanuel brought in an outside law firm and an accounting firm to audit his work for the city. A report issued by those firms last year said there was no indication Ahmad committed any wrongdoing at Chicago's City Hall.
Sahi, a special correspondent for Tribune Newspapers, reported from Islamabad.
jebyrne@tribune.com
Dr. Usman Anwar, director of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency in Punjab province said today that Ahmad was arrested at Lahore airport when he was trying to enter the country using a forged Mexican passport with a forged Pakistani visa.
"Our officers at the airport found that his passport and visa were forged. We also recovered his original American passport which he tried to hide. Then we searched his history on Google and found that he was guilty of fraud in US and wanted (by the) FBI," Anwar said. "We have arrested him under (a) passport and visa fraud case which carries a punishment of seven years of imprisonment in Pakistan.”
Ahmad’s apprehension comes a week after Ahmad's wife filed a request for an order of protection in Cook County Court in which she alleged he was seeking a fake passport to go to Pakistan.
The U.S. Marshals Service announced last week they were looking for Ahmad on an arrest warrant for violating terms of bail in the case, in which he pleaded guilty to participating in a kickback scheme during his time as deputy state treasurer in Ohio prior to being hired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as Chicago comptroller in 2011.
Ahmad's attorney declined Tuesday to comment on reports of Ahmad's apprehension. According to the docket in his federal case in Ohio, on March 13 Ahmad was granted an extension until April 22 to file objections to his pre-sentence report.
The U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Ohio sought an arrest warrant for Ahmad last Thursday based on what office spokesman Fred Alverson said was "credible evidence that Mr. Ahmad had violated conditions of his supervised release." A federal judge in Ohio signed the warrant Friday, and U.S. marshals began searching for Ahmad.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Squires, who has worked on the Ahmad fraud case in Ohio, declined to comment on reports he had been apprehended in Pakistan.
In a request for an order of protection she filed last Thursday in Cook County court, Ahmad's wife, Samar Ahmad, said Amer Ahmad called her Wednesday and told her to get him a fake birth certificate from Pakistan so he could get a passport. When she refused, Samar Ahmed said her husband "became irate and threatened that if I didn't do this he intimated that he would ruin or hurt me," according to the court document.
Samar Ahmed also said in the written request that she was "very concerned" her husband "will kidnap our children and take them to Pakistan."
"He believes that (he) is not guilty (and) deserves a life with the children and repeatedly gets very angry if I say anything, abusive and slapped me when we had gotten into an argument and he became irrationally angry," the request for an order of protection reads.
"He threatened to take my daughter and he told her that she would never see me or her siblings ever again and that they were going to see Allah," the document reads.
Ahmad pleaded guilty in December to bribery and a conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering and wire fraud, months after he abruptly stepped down as Emanuel's hand-picked comptroller. He was indicted weeks after he resigned.
Federal prosecutors in Ohio alleged while he was deputy state treasurer there, Ahmad gave state investment work to a former high school classmate in exchange for having $400,000 funneled to a landscaping company in which Ahmad was a part owner. An additional $123,000 was funneled through a friend and business associate of Ahmad's, prosecutors said.
Maximum prison terms for the charges range from five years to as much as 10 years, court documents show.
After Ahmad was indicted, Emanuel brought in an outside law firm and an accounting firm to audit his work for the city. A report issued by those firms last year said there was no indication Ahmad committed any wrongdoing at Chicago's City Hall.
Sahi, a special correspondent for Tribune Newspapers, reported from Islamabad.
jebyrne@tribune.com
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