A 44-year-old Long Island man was charged Wednesday with operating an unlicensed money transfer business that help get money into the hands of Times Square terrorist Faisal Shahzad.
Shahzad is a former Shelton resident.
According to an indictment, Mohammad Younis ran an unlicensed business that transfered money between the U.S. and Pakistan.
Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May. The bomb did not detonate.
Shahzad told the government that he received funding from Tehrik-e-Taliban, an extremist group in Pakistan.
The money came through Younis’ unlicensed business, the government claims.
However, the government is not alleging Younis knew the money was being used to fund a terrorist act.
Younis was arrested Wednesday morning by agents of the New York Joint
Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at his Long Island residence.
He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan federal court.
According to the indictment, a copy of which is posted below, from January to May 2010, Younis provided money transmitting services to individuals in the New York City area by assisting in the operation of a “hawala,” a type of informal value transfer system in which money does not physically cross international boundaries through the banking system.
If convicted, Younis faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each of the charges.
“By providing ‘hawala’ money transmitting services to terrorist Faisal Shahzad, Mohammad Younis, albeit unwittingly, gave Shahzad the access to cash needed to facilitate his attempted car bombing in Times Square,” New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a prepared statement.
Shazad, 31, is being held in jail in New York City. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5.
