Hezbollah was to be cash recipient
Toledoans Hor Akl and his wife, Amera, were caught trying to conceal $200,000 inside a vehicle they had planned to send to Lebanon and the terror group Hezbollah, which is pledged to the destruction of Israel. THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY Enlarge | Photo Reprints The money, he added, was headed to a known terrorist group, Hezbollah.
The Toledo couple pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Monday to charges that they conspired to smuggle money to a terrorist group overseas. As part of their negotiated pleas, each will be sentenced to time in prison.
“Two hundred thousand dollars was the initial installment,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said, noting that the couple agreed to transport $1 million, of which about $200,000 would be kept by them as a fee.
Hor Akl pleaded guilty to five counts pertaining to conspiracy and interstate commerce in support of terrorism as well as bankruptcy fraud. He could be sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
His wife, Amera Akl, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization. She faces nearly four years in prison when sentenced.
As part of the plea agreements, an arson charge that would have carried a 10-year prison sentence was dropped against Hor Akl, and two charges, including an arson-related charge, were dropped against his wife.
They each left the Toledo courtroom Monday without comment after the hearing.
The pair were charged in June, 2010, in a 36-page indictment filed in U.S. District Court. It alleged they “did knowingly combine, conspire, and agree” to aid the terrorist group Hezbollah. They are alleged to have sent money and supplies to a foreign terrorist organization beginning on Aug. 30, 2009.
“Money is the lifeblood of terrorist organizations, and stopping the flow is a key component to choking off these organizations,” U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach, who is based in Cleveland, said in a prepared statement e-mailed to The Blade.
According to court documents filed in the case, Hor Akl said that he spoke to his wife about transporting funds and that he personally had brought money to Lebanon in previous visits. Court records also indicate that he said he understood that the transported funds would go to “terrorists” targeting Israel.
In March, 2010, Hor Akl returned to Lebanon during which time his wife said she had spoken to her husband and said he would be meeting with a high-level Hezbollah official, court documents said.
The couple were arrested June 3, 2010, after an eight-month federal investigation. According to court documents, a government source entered the Akl residence with $200,000 provided by the FBI. Agents found the couple in their home wearing latex gloves and in possession of the money and automotive accessories, plastic wrap, and duct tape, while they prepared to hide the cash in the accessories.
Recorded conversations
Mr. Herdman said that evidence in the case included recorded conversations as well as details obtained by an informant.
Counts one and two, pertaining to conspiracy and interstate commerce in support of terrorism, named both the husband and his wife.
On counts three, four, and five, Hor Akl was charged with defrauding creditors, making false statements under oath, and fraudulently transferring or concealing property as it related to a bankruptcy filed in August, 2008. Count six, which will be dismissed at sentencing, alleged the two of them collected an insurance claim in early 2002 after allegedly setting a 1998 Jeep Cherokee on fire.
U.S. District Court Judge James Carr, who presided over the plea, noted that as part of the signed plea agreements, he was bound to sentence the couple within agreed upon guidelines. He set Amera Akl’s sentencing for June 20 where she faces between 37 and 46 months.
Hor Akl faces between 70 and 87 months. No sentencing date for him was set.
Because of good time credit allotted in federal prison sentencing, each could serve less time in prison than their sentence. Amera Akl’s Detroit-based attorney, Sanford Schulman, said that the couple’s children will fall under the care of various family members while they are incarcerated. He added that the wife requested an early sentencing date so that she could begin serving her sentence and there would be less time when both parents are behind bars.
Additional details would be worked out at the sentencing, he added.
‘In the same direction’
Judge Carr noted that both defendants had to choose to enter guilty pleas or proceed to trial. He said that per conditions of the agreements, the couple were “bound to proceed in the same direction” and that one could not choose to enter a plea without the other.
Also as part of the deal, the couple would forfeit $7,140.40 as well as a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer, which was to be used to smuggle the cash, according to the indictment.
Prior to entering the plea, Mr. Schulman withdrew a series of motions that had been filed recently. Included was a motion to dismiss the charges “due to outrageous governmental conduct.”
After the hearing, Mr. Schulman said his client’s story was outlined in the 38-page motion, but she chose to enter a plea because “she wanted it over.”
“It was 40 years down to three years. I probably would have taken the deal myself,” he said.
In the motion withdrawn yesterday, Mr. Schulman outlined the months during the investigation. He said there had been no evidence that the couple previously had been involved in “assisting or even associating with a known terrorist organization.”
He added that the government had no need to send an informant to stage a terrorist transaction.
“I don’t know if they caught the bad guy today, but they got what they wanted,” he said.
Attorney David Doughten, who with Jeff Helmick represented Hor Akl, said after the hearing Monday that the plea had been “appropriate” based on the facts of the case.
“He was treated fairly by the government,” Mr. Doughten said. “… It was an accurate plea reflecting the facts of the case.”
The judge allowed the couple to continue living in separate houses on bond, but extended the time they could spend together with their three children to between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., seven days a week. Both remain on electronic monitoring and an adult custodian must be present at all times.
“This case demonstrates the continued effort by the FBI and our Joint Terrorism Task Forces to deny financing and support to those terrorist organizations that present a threat to the United States,” said Stephen Anthony, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Division, in a prepared statement e-mailed to The Blade.
Contact Erica Blake at: eblake@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.
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