On October 21, 2005 a federal jury convicted a Herndon, Virginia, man pursuant to the U.S. Patriot Act that requires money transmitters to obtain the required state license and register with FinCEN, an agency of the US Treasury, before engaging in the money transmission business. Testimony showed that Mohammad Bajwa operated a money transmission business in Virginia before and after March 2002 when the Virginia Bureau of Financial Institutions denied the money transmission application of Hashim Enterprises, Inc., a company owned and managed by Bajwa. The prosecution produced evidence connecting Bajwa to six million dollars he helped people wire to Pakistan and other countries from Virginia residents. He was also convicted of wire fraud connected to a refinancing application he filed on a mortgage.
Bajwa was ordered to give up his home and four million dollars. He could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each charge when he is sentenced November 29th.
Prosecutors say Bajwa collected money from people in Virginia and then wired it to overseas banks. His brother in Pakistan then collected the money and distributed it its recipients.
In April, Bajwa was convicted of immigration fraud and was later sentenced to two years in prison.
Bajwa’s conviction for operating with out state money transmission license is the third handed down by Virginia juries in Northern Virginia in 2005. A current list of licensed money transmitters can be found in the Bureau of Financial Institutions’ web site at www.scc.virginia.gov/division/banking.