Previous Story
DOJ seeks help from Bangladesh to obtain bank, business records
The U.S. government is seeking help from Bangladesh to obtain the bank and business records of one of six suspects in a fake jobs scam.
Assistant U.S. attorney James J. Benedetto disclosed in documents filed in federal court last week that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs has prepared a letter addressed to family members and relatives in Bangladesh of one of the suspects.
Benedetto said that key to the scheme to defraud was the collection of large amounts of money—roughly between $15,000 and $20,000—from each of the 12 victims in the case. The vast majority of those payments allegedly occurred in Bangladesh.
Muksedur Rahman and his co-schemers allegedly instructed the victims to make payments to Rahman’s various relatives and in-laws who lived in that country.
Benedetto said some of the payments were made in cash directly to a co-schemer of Rahman, and some were deposited directly into the accounts of his family members and in-laws.
Benedetto said witnesses who were present when the payments were made will corroborate the cash payments, and business records will corroborate the payments deposited into the bank accounts of Rahman’s family members.
Benedetto said the records will be produced in discovery as soon as they are received by the U.S. government.
The superseding indictment charged the defendants with 17 counts such as mail fraud, fraud in foreign labor contracting, and fraud and misuse of visas and permits.
The defendants pleaded not guilty of the charges.
Jury trial will be on Aug. 1, 2017.
