January 23, 2008

Western Union store owner indicted on money laundering (human smuggling)

From this:

A Scottsdale man who ran four Western Union stores in Phoenix and Mesa was indicted Tuesday on 80 counts of money laundering and other crimes that are suspected of financing human smugglers and drug dealers [in a] ...four-year-old, $56.8 million money-laundering scheme... [it] was unraveled by the Arizona Financial Crimes Task Force, which includes ICE, the Phoenix Police Department, the Department of Public Safety and the Attorney General's Office [run by Terry Goddard].

His exact relationship to Western Union isn't known: he might have been a franchisee, or something else. However, if there's any possibility that those higher in the food chain knew about this hopefully that's being pursued. Even the New York Times has hinted at highly questionable activity by WU itself.

See also ICIRR in suit against Terry Goddard over Western Union wire transfers; the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights received donations from WU and then later, oddly enough, sued to block Goddard's attempts to pursue cases like the current one. In addition to the ICIRR, WU is deeply linked into the "illegal immigration lobby", including having a link to Hillary Clinton campaign co-chair Raul Yzaguirre.

Posted to Immigration2008a at January 23, 2008 08:55 PM

Lonewacko

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