Wednesday, January 12, 2005
The week of January 3 to 6, 2005--More Enron Man!
The defense team spent the week cross-examining FBI agent Kolbe. They exposed serious inconsistencies in the government's case. The government has been portraying Dr. Dhafir as the "evil-doer" that misappropriated charitable funds from his Charity (Help the Needy (HTN)) for his personal use and for non-relief purposes such as promoting Islam. Under testimony FBI Agent Kolbe admitted that some of the funds he said were HTN's, were actually Dr., Dhafir's. We also learned that there were lots of donors to HTN that donated money for specific purposes such as religion.
FBI agent Kolbe was caught in more lies and at times seemed over his head--he is woefully deficient lacking a solid accounting background. As a CPA, that has worked for a Big 8 accounting firm in NYC, I am surprised that the lead FBI person would have almost no accounting background for a case that is so financially complicated. The defense was able to find several blunders and outright lies. Sadly and pathetically Kolbe seems he could fit right in at Enron before the debacle. Let's hope the jury sees it that way as well for Enron Man.
The Syracuse Post Standard even weighed in with some damning coverage of Kolbe's testimony. Consider the following reported last week:
"Cannick questioned Kolbe about an error in an application for a search warrant that the agent made two years ago. The affidavit said an $82,000 check deposited in Help the Needy's account was from Dhafir's medical practice, MCMC LLC, when in fact the check was from another medical practice, MMC LLC. The money was the proceeds from Dhafir's sale of his Camden medical office, Kolbe said.
Kolbe's affidavit, which was given to a judge to allow agents to intercept Dhafir's phone calls and e-mail, called the $82,000 check a high-interest loan that Dhafir made to Help the Needy, which repaid him at a higher amount.
"Was that a lie?" Cannick asked Kolbe.
"I would characterize it as a misstatement," Kolbe said. "However, it's a fact that it's $82,000 of Dr. Dhafir's." "
http://www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1105091923258340.xml?syrnesreg
"A Syracuse charity that solicited donations in the United States by promising to aid starving Iraqis was also getting donations from the Middle East designated for specific projects, according to evidence in the federal trial of the charity's founder…"
http://www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1104919166312170.xml?syrnepol
The following are some key points:
January 3:
*We learned that agent Kolbe had very little, or almost no accounting background. Which is a surprise given that much of the government's case rested on complicated analysis of the Help the Needy financial records.
*A series of checks that Kolbe testified were donor's money were claimed by Dahfir to be his family's money. His testimony was challenged showing that dates of these checks and deposit dates didn't match.
January 4:
*Agent Kolbe admitted that he illegally conducted searches of Dhafir's home while he had only one search warrant for February 26, 2003.
*Agent Kolbe admitted that he did not do a complete analysis of Zagha's bank account to see how much was deposited into the account, outside of IANA/HTN transfers. Zagha was Help the Needy's point person in the Middle East. Since the FBI is claiming Dr. Dhafir stole and inappropriately spent money you would think the FBI would do a more thorough job of investigation.
*Kolbe was made to admit that Dr. Dhafir deposited about $83,000 from his personal funds into Zagha's fleet account before HTN was founded.
*We learned why Help the Needy had large sums of money in its accounts at times. Because they would spend money on specific practices at certain times.
We learned from a FBI field worker's report that mosques played a major role in the distribution of relief aid. This undermined the government's claim that HTN had nothing to do with mosques. The government has been consistently trying to paint Dr. Dhafir as a religious extremist that used charity funds to promote the Islamic faith.
*A pamphlet was shown describing how "preachers" (imams) were used to aid in relief distribution.
*From emails we learned that workers in the Middle East used their own vehicles to transport goods. This was a rebuttal to the government's allegations that there were no receipts for the transportation of goods.
We learned from correspondence from a HTN worker in Jordan that additional funds from "well doers" for other missions, besides relief, were donated. The government had been trying to claim that HTN misspent money on non-relief activities.
January 5:
Kolbe's hand written notes showed that Ayman Jarwan told him that Dhafir was the one who paid for all the administrative costs of HTN.
Kolbe admitted that he saw money donations earmarked for preacher's sponsorship from donors in the USA.
January 6:
* We learned from a Jordanian worker that Gulf donors purchased Q'uran's. The letter also documented that HTN was prohibited from buying Q'urans.
*The same letter talked about an individual donating a mosque in Basra.
*Kolbe had to admit that Atlanta Muslims had donated money to build mosques, when he previously had said he never found such during his investigation.
*We learned a lot about specific donors and their designated donations for religious activities such as the purchase of Q'urans.
*We saw a letter dated 1991 from someone named "Hamza" saying he had received $2,000. Indicating that Dr. Dhafir had money with Zagha well before HTN was established.
FBI agent Kolbe was caught in more lies and at times seemed over his head--he is woefully deficient lacking a solid accounting background. As a CPA, that has worked for a Big 8 accounting firm in NYC, I am surprised that the lead FBI person would have almost no accounting background for a case that is so financially complicated. The defense was able to find several blunders and outright lies. Sadly and pathetically Kolbe seems he could fit right in at Enron before the debacle. Let's hope the jury sees it that way as well for Enron Man.
The Syracuse Post Standard even weighed in with some damning coverage of Kolbe's testimony. Consider the following reported last week:
"Cannick questioned Kolbe about an error in an application for a search warrant that the agent made two years ago. The affidavit said an $82,000 check deposited in Help the Needy's account was from Dhafir's medical practice, MCMC LLC, when in fact the check was from another medical practice, MMC LLC. The money was the proceeds from Dhafir's sale of his Camden medical office, Kolbe said.
Kolbe's affidavit, which was given to a judge to allow agents to intercept Dhafir's phone calls and e-mail, called the $82,000 check a high-interest loan that Dhafir made to Help the Needy, which repaid him at a higher amount.
"Was that a lie?" Cannick asked Kolbe.
"I would characterize it as a misstatement," Kolbe said. "However, it's a fact that it's $82,000 of Dr. Dhafir's." "
http://www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1105091923258340.xml?syrnesreg
"A Syracuse charity that solicited donations in the United States by promising to aid starving Iraqis was also getting donations from the Middle East designated for specific projects, according to evidence in the federal trial of the charity's founder…"
http://www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1104919166312170.xml?syrnepol
The following are some key points:
January 3:
*We learned that agent Kolbe had very little, or almost no accounting background. Which is a surprise given that much of the government's case rested on complicated analysis of the Help the Needy financial records.
*A series of checks that Kolbe testified were donor's money were claimed by Dahfir to be his family's money. His testimony was challenged showing that dates of these checks and deposit dates didn't match.
January 4:
*Agent Kolbe admitted that he illegally conducted searches of Dhafir's home while he had only one search warrant for February 26, 2003.
*Agent Kolbe admitted that he did not do a complete analysis of Zagha's bank account to see how much was deposited into the account, outside of IANA/HTN transfers. Zagha was Help the Needy's point person in the Middle East. Since the FBI is claiming Dr. Dhafir stole and inappropriately spent money you would think the FBI would do a more thorough job of investigation.
*Kolbe was made to admit that Dr. Dhafir deposited about $83,000 from his personal funds into Zagha's fleet account before HTN was founded.
*We learned why Help the Needy had large sums of money in its accounts at times. Because they would spend money on specific practices at certain times.
We learned from a FBI field worker's report that mosques played a major role in the distribution of relief aid. This undermined the government's claim that HTN had nothing to do with mosques. The government has been consistently trying to paint Dr. Dhafir as a religious extremist that used charity funds to promote the Islamic faith.
*A pamphlet was shown describing how "preachers" (imams) were used to aid in relief distribution.
*From emails we learned that workers in the Middle East used their own vehicles to transport goods. This was a rebuttal to the government's allegations that there were no receipts for the transportation of goods.
We learned from correspondence from a HTN worker in Jordan that additional funds from "well doers" for other missions, besides relief, were donated. The government had been trying to claim that HTN misspent money on non-relief activities.
January 5:
Kolbe's hand written notes showed that Ayman Jarwan told him that Dhafir was the one who paid for all the administrative costs of HTN.
Kolbe admitted that he saw money donations earmarked for preacher's sponsorship from donors in the USA.
January 6:
* We learned from a Jordanian worker that Gulf donors purchased Q'uran's. The letter also documented that HTN was prohibited from buying Q'urans.
*The same letter talked about an individual donating a mosque in Basra.
*Kolbe had to admit that Atlanta Muslims had donated money to build mosques, when he previously had said he never found such during his investigation.
*We learned a lot about specific donors and their designated donations for religious activities such as the purchase of Q'urans.
*We saw a letter dated 1991 from someone named "Hamza" saying he had received $2,000. Indicating that Dr. Dhafir had money with Zagha well before HTN was established.
# posted by madis senner @ 9:30 PM 
