Update November 24: A little more thorough and less politcally correct report here.
Once again I had planned to tackle that boring topic targeted assistance this morning, but as my time at the computer runs out, it’s juicy stories like this one that are much more distracting and appealing. Tomorrow—targeted assistance for sure!
This is the title of the article that distracted me from harder work, “SEC says SD County man targeted Somalis with fraud.” My immediate reaction was what “man,” with the name of Smith or Jones or Madoff, was scamming the poor Somali Muslim refugees? In typical mainstream media fashion (I call it Major Nidal Hasan syndrome) we learn that the “man” was another Somali (or Arab Muslim) named Mohamud!
This is the whole story that could well have been entitled, “Immigrant Muslim fleeces fellow Muslims.”
SAN DIEGO — The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a San Diego County man with securities fraud, saying he targeted Somali immigrants in San Diego and Seattle.
In a complaint filed Thursday, the SEC says 45-year-old Mohamud A. Ahmed of Spring Valley and his company Shidaal Express sought Somali investors at a San Diego mosque, at a presentation in Seattle and on its Web site.
The complaint says Ahmed raised at least $3 million promising heady guaranteed returns of five percent per month. The complaint says Ahmed initially paid monthly returns but stopped.
A judge has frozen Ahmed’s assets and scheduled a Nov. 30 hearing on the company’s future.
It was not clear whether Ahmed was taken into custody. [My guess is that he has already skipped the country!]
A phone message left with the company was not immediately returned.
Incidentally, I thought we were told that Shariah-compliant financing prohibits paying interest, or does that only apply when Muslims want to buy houses and such?