posted by Christopher W. Holton
Two Sydney, Australia men have been jailed in a $17 million money laundering scheme that, at the very least, operated “alongside” a terrorist sympathizer.
Ahmad Ali and Fouad Moussa were sentenced in the New South Wales District Court after pleading guilty to the scheme.
“In each case, the deposit was smaller than $10,000 to avoid reporting requirements under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, and placed into one of five bank accounts.”
The sentences seem absurdly light.
Moussa was sentenced to 3 years, 7 months in prison, with a non-parole period of just 1 year, 9 months, meaning he will be eligible for release in December 2021. Ali was jailed for 3 years, 4 months and will be eligible for parole after just a year and a half.
They were sentenced alongside a western Sydney single mother who was sentenced to 2 years but allowed to go free on an “intensive correction order” because authorities could not find anyone to care for her son. (!)
She made 325 deposits worth more than $1.5 million while Ali and Moussa made deposits totaling $664,000 and $379,000 respectively.
These 3 charged along with co-perpatrators Belal Betka, Ahmad Hawchar, and Zouheir Ghazaoui who were incarcerated in 2019 for their involvement in the plot.
Betka was also earlier this year sentenced to the light sentence of just 2 years, 9 months after he pleaded guilty to engaging in hostile activity in a foreign country. He admitted travelling to Syria to join the Islamic State but claimed he did so for “humanitarian reasons” and not to fight.
