Friday January 23, 2004
LAS VEGAS (AP) A federal jury has found a Los Angeles man guilty of conspiring to cash hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit cashier's checks at a Las Vegas casino.
Jimmy Leung, 33, could face five to 10 years in prison and fines of $250,000 on each of four federal felony charges when he is sentenced in April, prosecutor Gregory Damm said Thursday, a day after Leung was convicted.
Conspiracy charges are pending in Detroit against Leung and fugitive co-defendant Aziz Massomipour in what prosecutors described as a similar scheme.
Leung and Massomipour were arrested in June 2002, waiting in a room at the MGM Grand hotel-casino while an undercover detective and three other men went to the cashier's cage to cash three counterfeit cashier's checks totaling $600,000, authorities said.
A fourth man was arrested with an additional $200,000 cashier's check.
Massomipour was freed after his arrest and is now a fugitive, Damm said.
The other three men pleaded guilty last year to federal counterfeit securities charges.
After the arrests authorities said they were investigating whether the men were involved in terrorism, but no such allegations were made during Leung's trial, Damm said.
In Detroit, Leung and Massomipour face charges of conspiring with a Dearborn, Mich., man who was arrested in July with $12 million in counterfeit cashier's checks when he arrived in Detroit on a flight from Indonesia.
The Dearborn man pleaded guilty to possessing the checks as part of a plea agreement requiring him to cooperate with investigators.
LAS VEGAS (AP) A federal jury has found a Los Angeles man guilty of conspiring to cash hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit cashier's checks at a Las Vegas casino.
Jimmy Leung, 33, could face five to 10 years in prison and fines of $250,000 on each of four federal felony charges when he is sentenced in April, prosecutor Gregory Damm said Thursday, a day after Leung was convicted.
Conspiracy charges are pending in Detroit against Leung and fugitive co-defendant Aziz Massomipour in what prosecutors described as a similar scheme.
Leung and Massomipour were arrested in June 2002, waiting in a room at the MGM Grand hotel-casino while an undercover detective and three other men went to the cashier's cage to cash three counterfeit cashier's checks totaling $600,000, authorities said.
A fourth man was arrested with an additional $200,000 cashier's check.
Massomipour was freed after his arrest and is now a fugitive, Damm said.
The other three men pleaded guilty last year to federal counterfeit securities charges.
After the arrests authorities said they were investigating whether the men were involved in terrorism, but no such allegations were made during Leung's trial, Damm said.
In Detroit, Leung and Massomipour face charges of conspiring with a Dearborn, Mich., man who was arrested in July with $12 million in counterfeit cashier's checks when he arrived in Detroit on a flight from Indonesia.
The Dearborn man pleaded guilty to possessing the checks as part of a plea agreement requiring him to cooperate with investigators.
