Federal authorities have arrested a Florida businessman, Osama “Sam” Mustafa in a money laundering/tax fraud scheme.
This is not the first time Mustafa has met the Feds. He was previously questioned a decade ago because he had employed one of the 9/11 hijackers at one of his San Diego gas station/convenience stores in 2000.
Two businessmen were named in a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday accusing them of conspiring to profit from fraudulent tax refund checks.
One of the men, Osama “Sam” Mahmud Mustafa, previously owned a gas station in San Diego, where he briefly employed a man in 2000 who later would become one of the Sept. 11 hijackers. Mustafa’s name appears in the official report of the 9/11 Commission, but he was not linked to the hijackings.
In connection with the tax fraud indictment, federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of more than $26 million either obtained from or linked to the offenses.
In addition to Mustafa, who lives in Riverview, the indictment, handed up last week in Virginia, names Khaldoun “Tony” Khalil Khawaja, of Tampa, as well as Khawaja’s brother, Muawia “Mike” Khalil Abdeljalil, who lives in Virginia.
Khawaja was sentenced last month to three years in prison on a federal weapons charge. Abdeljalil was arrested in Tampa on tax fraud-related charges when he attended his brother’s sentencing hearing.
