OK, now that the hearing is over, we're getting some more details on the case of Muhammad Masood, former Sharon MA imam who was charged with making false statements to federal agents and visa fraud. From the Patriot Ledger, whose reporter Lane Lambert has followed this case for years:
"Iman Muhammad Masood, the former spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon, plead guilty today to five counts of giving false statements and visa fraud."
"With the plea agreement now in place, sentencing is scheduled for May 22. His attorney and the government have reportedly agreed that the government will recommend three years probation."
"Masood had no comment after the hearing. His attorney Norman Zalkind said, 'We made what we considered a very good agreement based on the evidence.' ”
"Masood, 49, had been charged on nine counts of visa fraud."
"The Pakistan native was picked up in a multi-state immigration sweep in November 2006, then indicted on criminal charges last August."
Masood is shown above on the left, in a Patriot Ledger photo. His brother-in-law Abdul Hannan, imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell, is at the right. Hannan was also picked up in the November 2006 religious visa sweep, but I haven't heard of any charges brought against him yet. Curious, that.
Masood and several family members separately face deportation charges. Deportation hearings have been repeatedly postponed as the criminal case proceeded. Meanwhile, they're living on the 52-acre estate that the ICNE owns, although Masood no longer has a position with the ICNE. Critics of Masood's tenure as imam refer to it as "Sharunistan."
The AP story carried by the Worcester Telegram and Boston Globe adds these details:
"As part of the plea deal, prosecutions agreed to recommend a sentence of three years probation, but no prison time. They also agreed to dismiss four other similar charges against Masood."
"But Masood's guilty plea could ultimately force him to return to Pakistan. 'It may have an effect on your immigration status. It may lead to deportation from the United States,' Judge Douglas Woodlock told Masood while asking him if he was sure he wanted to plead guilty rather than go to trial on the charges."
Denise Lavoie's AP article includes this slanted statement:
"Masood and his son were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement along with 31 others in a nationwide sweep of an alleged scheme to provide religious-worker visas to immigrants who instead got secular jobs."
Ms. Lavoie, there's nothing alleged about it. Both Muhammed Masood and Abdul Hannan (Masood's brother-on-law) came to the U.S. through convicted felon Muhammad Khalil. According to Hannan himself, he worked for Khalil in Brooklyn for three and a half years. He then moved to Rhode Island and then to Massachusetts. Khalil signed the paperwork for Masood to come here. Muhammed Khalil brought over 200 Pakistani people here, charging them thousands of dollars each for providing fraudulent religious worker visas. Neither Hannan nor Masood were religious scholars or imams in Pakistan when they came here.
"Khalil issued bogus paychecks to the applicants and requiring them to return the money to him in cash. He then filed tax returns for the mosque and required the applicants to file personal tax returns stating that they were employed as religious workers at the mosque. This allowed him to portray the mosque as a large-scale entity with a growing congregation."
It was a dinky Brooklyn basement level gift shop. But Khalil netted more than $600,000 from that scheme. He was convicted in 2004 and he's doing time in jail now.
When the sweep took place in November 2006, I remember thinking "Only 23 people got picked up? What happened to the other 177 people Khalil brought over? Where's the rest of them?"
There are other interesting family connections with Masood, including the Pakistani terrorist group founder Hafiz Saeed, which I've described here. Previous entries about this case may be found here.
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