Aldrin Brown of the Orange County Register reports on the case of Palestinian-American Tawfiq Mohamad Mousa in an article titled “O.C. man quizzed in federal probe.” Excerpt:
A Palestinian-born Anaheim businessman jailed in Santa Ana on federal charges could be among the first known U.S. citizens targeted by the FBI’s expanding terrorism investigation, his attorney said.
Tawfiq Mohamad Mousa, 40, is scheduled to appear before a federal judge Tuesday in his third attempt to be released on bail pending the outcome of his case.
Mousa, a naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in Orange County about 20 years, agreed to take a lie detector test and has been questioned repeatedly by federal agents about ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, said his attorney, Alex R. Kessel. Kessel said his client passed the lie detector test.
“I think Mr. Mousa is unfortunately caught up in their net but has not given any indication that he has any involvement with terrorism,” Kessel said during an interview. “Good, hardworking Arabic and Muslim people are getting caught up in the wide net the FBI is casting in its search for “terrorists.”
Mousa has been held in jail since his indictment Oct. 24, accusing him of making bank deposits beginning Sept. 11 of more than $188,000 in small chunks, to avoid filing currency-transaction reports, according to an arrest and search warrant affidavit.
During an investigation of those transactions, bank officials told FBI agents that Mousa previously wired money totaling about $200,000 to an unspecified bank in Israel between May 8 and July 25 — also in small chunks, the court papers showed.
Federal law requires the filing of a currency report for any transaction over $10,000. Deliberately avoiding the reports by moving money in smaller increments is a crime known as “money structuring.” All of Mousa’s alleged deposits and wire transfers were between $9,000 and $10,000.