IOS FRAUD!!! 20 Year Look at COUPON FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS and a Link to TERRORIST FUNDING
IOS FRAUD!!! ANY CONNECTION TO FUNDING TERROR CELLS?
A Look at the Problem Over 20 Years
ARE THEY ALL CONNECTED?
A Look at the Problem Over 20 Years
ARE THEY ALL CONNECTED?
Coupon redemption fraud has been a favorite financing target by terror cells and their sympathizers operating within the United States. Since 1986, terror operatives working within the U.S. have used Coupon Redemption as a method of financing operations here and abroad. This is well documented in various indictments and investigations over the years.
BAHHUR
In 1988 in South Florida, a $186 million dollar coupon fraud investigation was revealed. During an undercover sting operation by industry and law enforcement that was captured on video tape, the ring leader, Adnan Bahhur, pounded his chest to the undercover operatives and claimed that his uncle is George Habash, the leader of the PLFP (Palestine Liberation Front), the military arm of the PLO. Habash was a close associate of Saddam Hussein, the Dictator of Iraq.
When Bahhur was arrested, he recanted his claim to a relationship with Habash and his association with the PLFP. Where did the $186 million go? At the time of his arrest, many of his associates and co-conspirators, grocery store owners from across America, most Middle-Eastern men, came to Hollywood, Florida to reap additional financial gains from the coupon fraud scheme. The U.S. Postal Inspector and Broward County Sheriff’s Office conducted a raid that was captured on video.
This was the first indication of a national network of coupon fraudsters with alleged ties to terrorist operations. Years later, in 2003, Bahhur continued his criminal enterprise in other cities in the Midwest. He was convicted of various crimes in Tennessee and spent some time in the Federal lockup. He’s back out on American streets living and doing business in South Florida, today.
AYOUB / WORLD TRADE CENTER
From 1989 through 1996 in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, another coupon fraudster, the “King of Coupons”, Radwan Ayoub, generated more than $100 million from his coupon fraud enterprise. His network stretched across America, from the Northeast, into the South, the Midwest and Texas. His claim to fame is that his coupon fraud operations used a specific storefront in Brooklyn, New York, “Hamada Video”, the main operations building for the 1993 bombers of the World Trade Center. This location was used by Ayoub to ship all of his fraudulent coupons after the packages were received from cutting houses throughout the Northeast.
The “Hamada Video” storefront was the main meeting place for the planners of the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. That bombing killed six people and injured more than one thousand. Sheik Rachman and his co-conspirators in the bombing, including red head, Mahmud Abouhalima, chief planner of the bombing, often met at this location. Mahmud Abouhalima was the manager of Hamada Video. The storefront and basement was used to gather supplies for preparation of the bombing, according to the owner of the building. Abouhalima lived on the third floor of the building. The Sheik, Abouhalima and others in the bombing conspiracy were supported by coupon fraud. They are currently serving 200 plus years in U.S. Federal Penitentiary.
.
ZEIN ISA
In St. Louis, Zein Isa was running the Abu-Nidal terror cell from his home and business, a grocery storefront. Isa and his associates, a network of Middle-Eastern grocery store owners, ran a mill of coupon fraud activities, stolen goods, adulteration of baby foods and trafficking in stolen treasury notes.
He became famous, while trying to remain under the radar of the U.S. government, when he murdered his daughter, Palestina, while his wife (not the girl’s mother), held her down. She was stabbed numerous times. Her murder screams were captured on a Federal bug, but the response was too late to save her life. At the time, a task force of Federal law enforcement agents, the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office and the Secret Service, in addition to state police and local law enforcement were investigating Isa and his terror network. They failed to act on the network. With the murder of Isa’s daughter and his subsequent arrest, the task force disbanded. Isa’s network of coupon fraud redemption associates stretched across America into Mexico. His organization was closely associated with Saddam Hussein, the Iraq dictator. Isa died while serving a life sentence in the Federal Penitentiary.
The three coupon fraud networks described above used the coupon clearinghouses to defraud hundreds of American Corporations out of hundreds of millions of dollars over a period of more than ten years.
The activities of those who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, murdered a daughter to protect secrets and paid millions for funding operations are all suspected of supporting terror cells within the United States and the Middle East.
IOS – INTERNATIONAL OUTSOURCING SERVICES
Now in 2007 comes International Outsourcing Services, Inc. (IOS), which has become one of the largest coupon clearinghouse operations in the United States.
IOS clears coupons for many businesses run by Middle-Eastern owners or operators. Many are not associated with terror operations but allow their businesses or names to be used by those who are terror-connected. Many of them had never submitted coupons to a coupon clearinghouse for redemption. An investigation of more than 300 stores associated with the IOS coupon fraud scheme found storefronts that did not sell grocery goods and stores which did not even exist.
Abdel Rahim Jebara, the leader of the IOS coupon fraud scheme, has residences in South Florida, new York and Ramallah, in the Palestinian territory of Israel. He sent a portion of his coupon fraud profits to Ramallah to support family members and his associates, who were recorded on tape proclaiming a “jihad in Ohio”.
IOS, with operations in El Paso, Texas; Bloomfield, Illinois; Memphis, Tennessee and Mexico is similar to the former clearinghouse locations of Seven Oaks and CRI during the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s. The Seven Oaks clearinghouse contributed funding to the Radwan Ayoub network, with more than $100 million going to financing operations for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Some of the names and locations cited in the IOS indictments and the February 2003 indictments which led to the IOS criminal investigation were found to be involved in coupon fraud operations throughout the 1990’s. This was well-documented and evidence was provided to Federal law enforcement agencies in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, but no action was taken.
In the IOS indictments some of the participants have the same names, faces, addresses and networks as those implicated in the early 1990’s. CRIMETALKAMERICA.COM finds that some of the same grocery storefronts, with the same addresses, were listed as suspect stores in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, submitting an excessive volume of coupons for redemption during those periods.
Named in the 2003 Abdel Rahim Jebra indictment which led to the 2007 IOS indictment is Robert McDonald, an employee of International Data, Inc. (IDI). In 1989 McDonald was listed as a person of interest in the Northeast coupon fraud investigation. He had a relationship with the Seven Oaks clearinghouse of El Paso, Texas. An internal investigation by Seven Oaks and the Neilsen Clearinghouse (NCH) found that McDonald had a relationship with two of the employees of Seven Oaks who were receiving financial reward for their inside information from the “King of Coupons”, Radwan Ayoub, the supplier of financing to the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
…What role did McDonald play?
In the wake of this investigation, two Seven Oaks employees were terminated and another resigned. In addition, policies and procedures were adjusted to impose better governance over controls that were bypassed by the Seven Oaks employees implicated in the scheme.
The coupon fraud continued on for some 17 years, involving some new players and some old ones…a similar fraud by networks and individuals with ties to Middle East terror operations.
It is obvious that the leaders of IOS benefited from the fraud schemes. Officers and shareholders of IOS financially benefited as a result of the increased coupon redemption billings, an estimated $250 million (filed in an affidavit for forfeiture and seizure by the U.S. government).
These profits are at the expense of our American security. IOS management padded their pockets along with the coupon fraud network and terror operations.
…Will the U.S. Government, through the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the IRS Criminal Division and the FBI recover the profits from this international coupon fraud and/or from the individual executives and fraudsters involved? We’ll stay on top of this!
…What about the 300+ stores that were part of this fraud scheme? Who will explore these store operations and their financial benefits from the coupon fraud? Will we bring them to justice?
…Will the U.S. Government recover any of the proceeds from the storefront operations?
It was reported that some $40 million in additional fraudulent coupon submissions were stopped from processing. After IOS, subsidiary International Data, Inc. (IDI) discovered that the FBI was investigating. It is reported that employees destroyed documents, altered account information and changed financial statements. It’s also alleged that many employees were instructed to do so by IDI/IOS management.
In 1998, Ben Jacobson, founder of global security and investigative services firm The Peregrine Group, testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee during its hearings on “Terrorism and Technology”. Mr. Jacobson detailed the coupon industry’s vulnerability to terror cell operations and identified terror cells that were using consumer coupons to finance their operations inside the U.S. and abroad.
The Senate hearings were in recognition of the fifth anniversary of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The U.S. Senate wanted to know what the U.S. Government knew prior to the bombing. Approximately three years before the bombing, Mr. Jacobson had reported the network to a series of Federal agencies, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, all of whom turned a blind eye to that information (see Mr. Jacobson’s testimony via the link on this Web site).
The IOS investigation began in 2001 and moved full speed ahead. By 2002, during the Federal investigation, it was revealed that Abdel Rahim Jebara had been active in coupon fraud schemes since 1998.
It took more than 18 years for the government to act; nine years after Mr. Jacobson’s testimony before the U.S. senate.
Terror operations within the United States have flourished, the post-Iraq War insurgency and the September 11, 2001 attacks which killed 3,000 people all were associated with the terror coupon fraud networks.
It is known that Zein Isa met with a shadowy subject identified as Mohamad Atta in Mexico, after traveling throughout South America during the 1990’s. Isa met with other terror operatives in South America and Mexico, and some within the United States. The intelligence community could not identify whether this Mohamad Atta was the same person who orchestrated the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks, and it was automatically dismissed as “no relationship”. It is easy to dismiss outright without merit or confirmation.
The indifference shown during the 1980’s and 1990’s by Federal and local law enforcement to coupon fraud and its connection to terrorism has changed since September 11, 2001. In 2007, coupon fraud and its association to terror operations is now recognized as a major crime. Combating terror funding from within the United States, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office concentrated on this coupon fraud.
Mr. Jacobson’s 1998 testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee led its chairman, Senator Orrin Hatch, to refer the information presented by Mr. Jacobson to the FBI for further action (see the March 18, 1998 letter from Senator John Kyl).
The IOS investigation began in 2001, but IOS had been in operation since 1998, the same year Mr. Jacobson testified before the U.S. Senate.
Congratulations to Senators Kyl and Hatch for their follow-through and to the FBI for its diligent investigative efforts to break open the ongoing terror threat associated with coupon fraud.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? LET US KNOW!!
BAHHUR
In 1988 in South Florida, a $186 million dollar coupon fraud investigation was revealed. During an undercover sting operation by industry and law enforcement that was captured on video tape, the ring leader, Adnan Bahhur, pounded his chest to the undercover operatives and claimed that his uncle is George Habash, the leader of the PLFP (Palestine Liberation Front), the military arm of the PLO. Habash was a close associate of Saddam Hussein, the Dictator of Iraq.
When Bahhur was arrested, he recanted his claim to a relationship with Habash and his association with the PLFP. Where did the $186 million go? At the time of his arrest, many of his associates and co-conspirators, grocery store owners from across America, most Middle-Eastern men, came to Hollywood, Florida to reap additional financial gains from the coupon fraud scheme. The U.S. Postal Inspector and Broward County Sheriff’s Office conducted a raid that was captured on video.
This was the first indication of a national network of coupon fraudsters with alleged ties to terrorist operations. Years later, in 2003, Bahhur continued his criminal enterprise in other cities in the Midwest. He was convicted of various crimes in Tennessee and spent some time in the Federal lockup. He’s back out on American streets living and doing business in South Florida, today.
AYOUB / WORLD TRADE CENTER
From 1989 through 1996 in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, another coupon fraudster, the “King of Coupons”, Radwan Ayoub, generated more than $100 million from his coupon fraud enterprise. His network stretched across America, from the Northeast, into the South, the Midwest and Texas. His claim to fame is that his coupon fraud operations used a specific storefront in Brooklyn, New York, “Hamada Video”, the main operations building for the 1993 bombers of the World Trade Center. This location was used by Ayoub to ship all of his fraudulent coupons after the packages were received from cutting houses throughout the Northeast.
The “Hamada Video” storefront was the main meeting place for the planners of the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. That bombing killed six people and injured more than one thousand. Sheik Rachman and his co-conspirators in the bombing, including red head, Mahmud Abouhalima, chief planner of the bombing, often met at this location. Mahmud Abouhalima was the manager of Hamada Video. The storefront and basement was used to gather supplies for preparation of the bombing, according to the owner of the building. Abouhalima lived on the third floor of the building. The Sheik, Abouhalima and others in the bombing conspiracy were supported by coupon fraud. They are currently serving 200 plus years in U.S. Federal Penitentiary.
.
ZEIN ISA
In St. Louis, Zein Isa was running the Abu-Nidal terror cell from his home and business, a grocery storefront. Isa and his associates, a network of Middle-Eastern grocery store owners, ran a mill of coupon fraud activities, stolen goods, adulteration of baby foods and trafficking in stolen treasury notes.
He became famous, while trying to remain under the radar of the U.S. government, when he murdered his daughter, Palestina, while his wife (not the girl’s mother), held her down. She was stabbed numerous times. Her murder screams were captured on a Federal bug, but the response was too late to save her life. At the time, a task force of Federal law enforcement agents, the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office and the Secret Service, in addition to state police and local law enforcement were investigating Isa and his terror network. They failed to act on the network. With the murder of Isa’s daughter and his subsequent arrest, the task force disbanded. Isa’s network of coupon fraud redemption associates stretched across America into Mexico. His organization was closely associated with Saddam Hussein, the Iraq dictator. Isa died while serving a life sentence in the Federal Penitentiary.
The three coupon fraud networks described above used the coupon clearinghouses to defraud hundreds of American Corporations out of hundreds of millions of dollars over a period of more than ten years.
The activities of those who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, murdered a daughter to protect secrets and paid millions for funding operations are all suspected of supporting terror cells within the United States and the Middle East.
IOS – INTERNATIONAL OUTSOURCING SERVICES
Now in 2007 comes International Outsourcing Services, Inc. (IOS), which has become one of the largest coupon clearinghouse operations in the United States.
IOS clears coupons for many businesses run by Middle-Eastern owners or operators. Many are not associated with terror operations but allow their businesses or names to be used by those who are terror-connected. Many of them had never submitted coupons to a coupon clearinghouse for redemption. An investigation of more than 300 stores associated with the IOS coupon fraud scheme found storefronts that did not sell grocery goods and stores which did not even exist.
Abdel Rahim Jebara, the leader of the IOS coupon fraud scheme, has residences in South Florida, new York and Ramallah, in the Palestinian territory of Israel. He sent a portion of his coupon fraud profits to Ramallah to support family members and his associates, who were recorded on tape proclaiming a “jihad in Ohio”.
IOS, with operations in El Paso, Texas; Bloomfield, Illinois; Memphis, Tennessee and Mexico is similar to the former clearinghouse locations of Seven Oaks and CRI during the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s. The Seven Oaks clearinghouse contributed funding to the Radwan Ayoub network, with more than $100 million going to financing operations for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Some of the names and locations cited in the IOS indictments and the February 2003 indictments which led to the IOS criminal investigation were found to be involved in coupon fraud operations throughout the 1990’s. This was well-documented and evidence was provided to Federal law enforcement agencies in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, but no action was taken.
In the IOS indictments some of the participants have the same names, faces, addresses and networks as those implicated in the early 1990’s. CRIMETALKAMERICA.COM finds that some of the same grocery storefronts, with the same addresses, were listed as suspect stores in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, submitting an excessive volume of coupons for redemption during those periods.
Named in the 2003 Abdel Rahim Jebra indictment which led to the 2007 IOS indictment is Robert McDonald, an employee of International Data, Inc. (IDI). In 1989 McDonald was listed as a person of interest in the Northeast coupon fraud investigation. He had a relationship with the Seven Oaks clearinghouse of El Paso, Texas. An internal investigation by Seven Oaks and the Neilsen Clearinghouse (NCH) found that McDonald had a relationship with two of the employees of Seven Oaks who were receiving financial reward for their inside information from the “King of Coupons”, Radwan Ayoub, the supplier of financing to the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
…What role did McDonald play?
In the wake of this investigation, two Seven Oaks employees were terminated and another resigned. In addition, policies and procedures were adjusted to impose better governance over controls that were bypassed by the Seven Oaks employees implicated in the scheme.
The coupon fraud continued on for some 17 years, involving some new players and some old ones…a similar fraud by networks and individuals with ties to Middle East terror operations.
It is obvious that the leaders of IOS benefited from the fraud schemes. Officers and shareholders of IOS financially benefited as a result of the increased coupon redemption billings, an estimated $250 million (filed in an affidavit for forfeiture and seizure by the U.S. government).
These profits are at the expense of our American security. IOS management padded their pockets along with the coupon fraud network and terror operations.
…Will the U.S. Government, through the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the IRS Criminal Division and the FBI recover the profits from this international coupon fraud and/or from the individual executives and fraudsters involved? We’ll stay on top of this!
…What about the 300+ stores that were part of this fraud scheme? Who will explore these store operations and their financial benefits from the coupon fraud? Will we bring them to justice?
…Will the U.S. Government recover any of the proceeds from the storefront operations?
It was reported that some $40 million in additional fraudulent coupon submissions were stopped from processing. After IOS, subsidiary International Data, Inc. (IDI) discovered that the FBI was investigating. It is reported that employees destroyed documents, altered account information and changed financial statements. It’s also alleged that many employees were instructed to do so by IDI/IOS management.
In 1998, Ben Jacobson, founder of global security and investigative services firm The Peregrine Group, testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee during its hearings on “Terrorism and Technology”. Mr. Jacobson detailed the coupon industry’s vulnerability to terror cell operations and identified terror cells that were using consumer coupons to finance their operations inside the U.S. and abroad.
The Senate hearings were in recognition of the fifth anniversary of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The U.S. Senate wanted to know what the U.S. Government knew prior to the bombing. Approximately three years before the bombing, Mr. Jacobson had reported the network to a series of Federal agencies, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, all of whom turned a blind eye to that information (see Mr. Jacobson’s testimony via the link on this Web site).
The IOS investigation began in 2001 and moved full speed ahead. By 2002, during the Federal investigation, it was revealed that Abdel Rahim Jebara had been active in coupon fraud schemes since 1998.
It took more than 18 years for the government to act; nine years after Mr. Jacobson’s testimony before the U.S. senate.
Terror operations within the United States have flourished, the post-Iraq War insurgency and the September 11, 2001 attacks which killed 3,000 people all were associated with the terror coupon fraud networks.
It is known that Zein Isa met with a shadowy subject identified as Mohamad Atta in Mexico, after traveling throughout South America during the 1990’s. Isa met with other terror operatives in South America and Mexico, and some within the United States. The intelligence community could not identify whether this Mohamad Atta was the same person who orchestrated the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks, and it was automatically dismissed as “no relationship”. It is easy to dismiss outright without merit or confirmation.
The indifference shown during the 1980’s and 1990’s by Federal and local law enforcement to coupon fraud and its connection to terrorism has changed since September 11, 2001. In 2007, coupon fraud and its association to terror operations is now recognized as a major crime. Combating terror funding from within the United States, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office concentrated on this coupon fraud.
Mr. Jacobson’s 1998 testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee led its chairman, Senator Orrin Hatch, to refer the information presented by Mr. Jacobson to the FBI for further action (see the March 18, 1998 letter from Senator John Kyl).
The IOS investigation began in 2001, but IOS had been in operation since 1998, the same year Mr. Jacobson testified before the U.S. Senate.
Congratulations to Senators Kyl and Hatch for their follow-through and to the FBI for its diligent investigative efforts to break open the ongoing terror threat associated with coupon fraud.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? LET US KNOW!!
Labels: Coupon Fraud
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