Texas: Somali food stamp fraudster sentenced to prison; sent your money to Somalia

Just redistributing your infidel wealth to the third world—what is wrong with that!

From the Star Telegram (hat tip: Gary):

FORT WORTH _ An Arlington convenience store owner was sentenced Friday to 57 months in federal prison for committing food stamp fraud, wire fraud, and running an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Ali Ugas Mohamud, who owned the Tawakal Grocery Store at 2440 South Collins Street, must also pay more than $1.4 million in restitution, $98,000 of which is due immediately, U.S. District Judge John McBryde ordered, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

According to court documents, Mohamud had applied for and was granted authorization in February 2004 for his store to participate in the food stamp program, the United States Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.

Beginning in 2009, however, Mohamud began occasionally exchanging food stamp benefits for cash or wired money to other individuals in Somalia using food stamp benefits, court documents state.

As part of his scheme, he also wired thousands of dollars from Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.,  which manages Lone Star cards for retailers, to his bank in Arlington between September 2008 and Februrary 2010.

Mohamud had pleaded guilty in October to seven counts of food stamp fraud, five counts of wire fraud and one count of conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business. McBryde sentenced him to 13 concurrent sentences of 57 months in federal prison on each count.

Here is the US Attorney’s office press release from last October when he was found guilty—this case must have slipped by me!

Believe me, this blog isn’t Somali Immigrant Watch even if it seems like it sometimes!

For new readers, our immigrant food stamp fraud archive is here.

Maine again: Somali rape suspect will be tried as an adult

Perhaps prompted by my previous post about how lovely everyone is getting along in Lewiston, a reader just sent me this update of a story we first told you about in June.  Mohammed Mukhtar was charged then with raping a 50-year-old woman in Portland, but it was not clear until now when he was born.

Here is the story from the Portland Press Herald on January 15th:

PORTLAND – A Portland teenager who fought efforts to prosecute him as an adult for allegedly breaking into the room of a woman and raping her last year, gave up his fight Monday and will be tried as an adult.

Mohammed Mukhtar, now 18 by all accounts, appeared in a juvenile proceeding in Cumberland County Unified Criminal for what was supposed to be the third day of a four-day hearing that started in November.

But he withdrew his application to fight prosecutors’ motions Monday afternoon after only two witnesses had testified.

Since Mukhtar was first arrested on May 26, the case against him has yo-yoed back and forth between juvenile and adult court.

He was first charged as an adult, when Portland police used the birthday he gave them: Jan. 1, 1994.

Mukhtar admits, in a video taken of him at the Portland Police Department just before his arrest, that he broke into the 50-year-old woman’s apartment on High Street, took off his shorts and underwear and put on a condom.

He denied raping her.

After his arrest, Mukhtar’s attorney, Jonathan Berry, successfully argued that Mukhtar had been assigned the Jan. 1 birthday when he came to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia and that his actual birthday is Oct. 25, 1994, making him a juvenile at the time of his arrest.

[….]

In the first phase of the hearing in November, Judge Richard Mulhern ruled that prosecutors had demonstrated probable cause for the charges against Mukhtar — gross sexual assault, burglary and trespassing.

A model refugee student likely resettled by Catholic Charities.

The second witness was Portland Police Officer Coreena Behnke, a school resource officer assigned to Portland High School where Mukhtar was a student.

She documented 17 different occasions during which Portland police had contact with Mukhtar.

Adult court means big jail time!

Though the case against Mukhtar won’t change, the potential penalty in adult court is much stiffer.

If convicted as a juvenile, he would serve no more than three years in juvenile detention.

As an adult, Mukhtar faces 20 years in prison.

Look! Really! Why waste taxpayer money keeping this guy in prison?  Let’s just deport him back to Somalia after he is found guilty.  Didn’t we just learn that Somalia wants its people to return to Somalia to help rebuild the homeland!  Put him in Somalia’s army, let him fight against al-Shabaab!

LOL! I wonder if Ms. Lindkvist of my previous post would characterize what Mukhtar is charged with as “micro-aggression” or “macro-aggression?”

For new readers we have resettled more than 100,000 Somali refugees to cities large and small in the US over the last 25 years.  See one of the most widely read posts here at RRW.  In three years since 9/11 ( Bush years 2004, 2005, 2006) the number of Somalis arriving topped 10,000 per year.  Those refugees then began bringing in the family (chain migration!) until 2008 when shock of shocks! the State Department discovered that as many as 30,000 Somalis had lied about their kinship and weren’t related at all.  The State Department then closed the “family reunification” program for Somalis.  It has recently been re-opened for new and legit family members, but they have no intention of finding and deporting the liars.  

Lewiston, Maine Somalis here to stay, get used to it! Everything copacetic!

Bates College in Lewiston held an evening program on Monday to send the message that all was calm now in Lewiston, ME, that indeed the locals have gotten the message and are now accepting of the large Somali population growing in their midst.

Maybe an occasional “micro-aggression” will occur, but for the most part, critics have been silenced.

Before reading this Sun Journal story (via the Bangor Daily News), please read or re-read our post (It’s the Welfare Magnet….) on how Lewiston became a magnet for secondary migration of Somalis originally resettled elsewhere.

Here is this week’s news from Lewiston:

LEWISTON, Maine — Bates College hosted a panel discussion Monday evening with community leaders, students and local immigration activists on the past, present and future of the local Somali community.

The title was “Understanding Barriers to Integration for Immigrants in Lewiston-Auburn.”

Members of the panel included former Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert, City Councilor Craig Saddlemire, Fatuma Hussein of United Somali Women of Maine, and anthropology lecturer Heather Lindkvist.

The discussion centered around the early Somali settlement of Lewiston leading up to the Many and One rally in 2003 and how far Lewiston, as a community, has come since then.

For new readers, Gilbert went to Washington in July 2011 to tell the US Senate how great everything was in Lewiston and how the Somalis were causing an economic boom for the city, BUT they needed more federal money!  Go figure!

Presenter Fatuma Hussein (who came up from Atlanta and is quoted in my post on the welfare magnet, linked above), had this to say:

“We’re here and the sooner people realize that, the better,” Hussein said.

And, the anthropology lecturer, Heather Lindkvist, said this:

Lindkvist spoke of how, before Many and One, there were women and children who were afraid to go out into the community. She said it created barriers for all involved because it prevented interactions with the community.

She also addressed how some feelings about immigration may have been pushed beneath the surface.

“Feelings need to be addressed,” Lindkvist said, “or we will face micro-aggressions” and other small, explosive outbursts between community members.

Micro-aggressions?  What the heck?

I know she must be talking about those swarms of Somali youths (some as young as 8 years old) who were attacking people randomly on Lewiston streets.  I told you about it here.   This is what the Sun Journal said at the time (isn’t it a good thing I copied the story because the link is now dead):

LEWISTON — In the early evening on the first day of summer, a large group of Somali boys approached a woman on the corner of Ash and Pierce streets. According to police reports, they intimidated the woman and slapped her in the back of the head before scattering into the downtown.

Five days later, shortly after midnight, a man was accosted by a group of Somali boys outside the Big Apple on Main Street. Police reports say several members of the group punched the man and took money from him. They then fled in a car.

Later that night, a woman in her late 60s was beaten by a group of Somali boys and relieved of cash while walking in Kennedy Park.

Five nights later, another man was jumped by a group of similar description. He resisted the gang and was beaten badly. He required surgery.

Throughout the summer, similar reports have come into the Police Department. Witnesses and investigators say swarms of Somali boys, some as young as 8, others in their late teens, overwhelm solitary victims through sheer numbers.

So, I’m guessing when Ms Lindkvist says women and children feared going out on the street, she was referring to the indigenous inhabitants of Maine.   It’s good to know that they feel safe now and only need to be on the lookout for an occasional “micro-aggression.”   I wonder what macro-aggression might be?

For more exciting events in Lewiston, go here to our archives.

Update:  Things not so copacetic in Portland!

Iranian TV calling Mali conflict “the French war on Mali;” blame the French for refugee crisis

This is actually funny if it weren’t so serious.

“French War on Mali increases Refugees,” from Press TV (Official Iranian English language news outlet):

The number of Malian people crossing into neighboring countries goes on to rise amid the French-led war on Mali.

According to reports by the United Nations, over 4,000 Malian refugees have arrived in Mauritania alone since January 11, when France launched a war on Mali under the pretext of halting the advance of fighters in the country.

Just some random fighters?  Not Jihadists trying to control the country?

They go on to tell readers about the terrible plight of refugees created by the FRENCH.

And, why did France launch this war?  To steal the resources of Mali, what else?

Press TV:

Some political analysts believe that Mali’s abandoned natural resources, including gold and uranium reserves, could be one of the reasons behind the French war.

If you missed it last Saturday we reported that a Leftist agitation group in Illinois is already calling for temporary refugee status for Malians already in the US, here.

More refugees to Wisconsin….

…..and more federal dollars to fund them (well, to fund the contractors).

There is nothing unusual about Wisconsin.  Everyone is going to get more refugees and Washington will surely have the funds flowing to the contractors* now that the Obama Administration is free to go full steam ahead.

If you live in Appleton, Barron, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh, here they come.

From AP at Fox 11:

MADISON (AP) – Agencies in six Wisconsin communities will receive a total of $1.5 million to help resettle new refugees.

The state Department of Children and Families says the latest refugees arriving in Wisconsin are mainly from Burma, East Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nepal. To receive refugee status, a person must have a well-founded fear of persecution and not be able to safely return to their home country.   [LOL! Now they are saying East Africa so as not to say Somalis.—ed]

That definition of a refugee is important.  It used to mean that the individual refugee had a fear of persecution, now one only needs to be from a certain region of the world and one is assumed to be persecuted.  The refugee industry has long wanted that expanded definition and now they have just made it so.  And, hey, didn’t Obama tell us that Iraq and Afghanistan are safe—after all, he says we don’t need our military there!   Somalia has a new government and is encouraging its people to come home.   And, who is persecuting in Nepal?

AP continues:

The state has funded refugee programs using federal money, beginning with the Hmong resettlement in Wisconsin. Local agencies provide a host of services to the refugees, including language and literacy classes, school enrollment, job information and mental health services.  [You pay for all of this!—ed]

The funding has been targeted for agencies in Appleton, Barron, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh. About 1,000 new refugees are expected to settle in Wisconsin this year.

For Wisconsin readers, you can learn more about refugees in Wisconsin here at your state agency website.  Five of nine federal contractors appear to have divvied up Wisconsin.

An afterthought:  Just as I hit publish I remembered that I wanted to mention that one of the bits of information for you to note at the Wisconsin website might answer an oft-asked question, namely, do refugees who come as senior citizens get social security?  The answer is yes—for up to nine years.   SSI will continue past that time if they become US citizens:

A refugee senior must naturalize within nine years of arrival or lose eligibility for SSI.

* The ORR website is down, but for new readers the big nine contractors who hold a monopoly on federal contracts are:

The so-called “religious ” contractors receiving tax dollars:

US Conference of Catholic Bishops  (we just mentioned them yesterday, here)

Church World Service

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services

World Relief

Episcopal Migration Ministries

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

The secular contractors:

US Committee on Refugees and Immigrants

International Rescue Committee

Ethiopian Community Development Council