Pak man pleads guilty for operating hawala racket

A New York man has pleaded guilty for operating a 'hawala' racket between United States and Pakistan, transferring funds to fellow Pakistani Faisal Shahzad, who used it for his botched car bombing plot at Times Square last year.

Mohammad Younis, 45, of Long Island pleaded guilty to one count of conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business.

He faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. In addition, he has to forfeit $12,000 to the United States. Younis is scheduled to be sentenced by US District Judge John Keenan on November 30. Manhattan Attorney Preet Bharara said the case should send a "clear message that we will not leave a stone unturned in our investigations of terrorists and how they get the money to finance their plots."

Younis engaged in an illegal activity and unknowingly facilitated the funding of a potentially lethal attack in New York City, Bharara added.

According to the indictment and statements made during the guilty plea, Younis made two separate hawala transactions with customers who travelled from Connecticut and New Jersey in April 2010, in each case providing thousands of dollars in cash to the individuals at the direction of a co-conspirator in Pakistan, but without knowledge of how the customers were planning to use the funds.

Younis did not have a license from either state or federal authorities to operate a money transmitting business.

One of the individuals to whom Younis provided money was Shahzad, who in June 2010, pled guilty to a 10-count indictment for his attempt to detonate a car bomb in Times Square on May 1, 2010.