J-10
10-21-2004, 04:47 AM
Arms ‘scapegoat’ stings FBI
AMIT ROY The Telegraph (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041018/asp/nation/story_3896602.asp)
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041018/images/18lakhani.jpgA sketch of Hemant Lakhani in a court in Newark, New Jersey. (*******)
London, Oct. 17: A 69-year-old “strict” Hindu from London, who is due to go on trial in the US in December on the charge of conspiring to import hand-held missiles into America for use by terrorists to shoot down planes, claims he is the victim of a “sting operation” by FBI agents.
In London, Hemant Lakhani (called Babu Lakhani by the UK Gujarati community), and his wife, Kusum, 67, were known as a God-fearing respectable couple. Lakhani’s wife has been admired for her charity work.
The view here is that Lakhani is not a terrorist but a businessman who perhaps acted foolishly because he had got into financial difficulty.
As he faces trial and the possibility of a 25-year prison sentence, Lakhani has owned up to his errors in an interview with the British media but insisted he had allowed greed for money to get the better of him.
“Bad company corrupts good morals. And this is what happened to me,” he said.
In Britain, where Lakhani had lived for 45 years after arriving from India, his business was garments. Though outwardly a devout Hindu, he wasn’t above engaging in a spot of arms dealing, though legally. He executed the sale of 11 armoured personnel carriers to the Angolan government.
Lakhani’s case is that he was pursued by a potential buyer who promised him a fortune if he would procure hand-held missiles with which to shoot down American aircraft. Lakhani claims that every time he tried to walk away, the buyer would ring him and offer him millions of dollars.
His lawyer, Henry Klingeman, argues that his client is a victim of “entrapment”, and that anyone would be tempted to get involved in a scheme that promised a multi-million dollar pay.
“Now I’m in a trap and I don’t know how to get out,” Lakhani said. “I’ve been a victim. I am the most unlucky man in the world. God will know if I’m innocent or guilty.”
A “Saudi” in America contacted Lakhani in 2001, shortly after 9/11, when he was looking for investors for a $1-billion Indian Oil refinery project, from which his own cut would be $2.5 million. This character turned out later to be a career informant called Air Haji, also known as Mohammed Habib Rehman. US reports said his main work was as an informant for the FBI and, previously, the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“He projected himself as a very wealthy multi-millionaire businessman,” Lakhani said. “He claimed to know the Saudi Prince Abdullah and said he would invest in the oil project.”
“He planned to entrap me from day one, to make money. And the government backed him utterly, to make me a scapegoat.”
Haji told Lakhani that he represented the Ogaden Liberation Front, a rebel group located between Somalia and Ethiopia. He wanted shoulder-fired missiles, which Lakhani initially could not deliver.
“He wanted 200 pieces,” Lakhani said, as though discussing blouse pieces. “Twenty pieces to begin with and one sample.”
The deal said to be worth $21 million would allow Lakhani a handsome cut — or so he thought.
Eventually, he managed to contact a man called “Sergi” in Ukraine who promised to do the needful but the “Igla” which was smuggled into the US was a dud. FBI and customs agents taped all of Lakhani’s interactions with Haji and jumped him at an incriminating moment at a hotel room in Newark in August last year.
Asked if he knew the sale was illegal, he said: “If you look at it that way, then yes.” But he added: “He (Haji) wanted to entrap me. All along he wanted to entrap me. He was begging and begging me. He’d say I’ve got 20 million, I’ve got 10 million, I’ve got so many million. All these temptations and temptations.”
Lakhani is visited in prison by Sanjay, 39, a clothing salesman in New York, and his wife.
Burying his head in his hands, Lakhani sobbed: “Where did I go wrong? I worked so hard. I worked hard, you have no idea. I like excitement in life, not money. I enjoyed my life.”
AMIT ROY The Telegraph (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041018/asp/nation/story_3896602.asp)
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041018/images/18lakhani.jpgA sketch of Hemant Lakhani in a court in Newark, New Jersey. (*******)
London, Oct. 17: A 69-year-old “strict” Hindu from London, who is due to go on trial in the US in December on the charge of conspiring to import hand-held missiles into America for use by terrorists to shoot down planes, claims he is the victim of a “sting operation” by FBI agents.
In London, Hemant Lakhani (called Babu Lakhani by the UK Gujarati community), and his wife, Kusum, 67, were known as a God-fearing respectable couple. Lakhani’s wife has been admired for her charity work.
The view here is that Lakhani is not a terrorist but a businessman who perhaps acted foolishly because he had got into financial difficulty.
As he faces trial and the possibility of a 25-year prison sentence, Lakhani has owned up to his errors in an interview with the British media but insisted he had allowed greed for money to get the better of him.
“Bad company corrupts good morals. And this is what happened to me,” he said.
In Britain, where Lakhani had lived for 45 years after arriving from India, his business was garments. Though outwardly a devout Hindu, he wasn’t above engaging in a spot of arms dealing, though legally. He executed the sale of 11 armoured personnel carriers to the Angolan government.
Lakhani’s case is that he was pursued by a potential buyer who promised him a fortune if he would procure hand-held missiles with which to shoot down American aircraft. Lakhani claims that every time he tried to walk away, the buyer would ring him and offer him millions of dollars.
His lawyer, Henry Klingeman, argues that his client is a victim of “entrapment”, and that anyone would be tempted to get involved in a scheme that promised a multi-million dollar pay.
“Now I’m in a trap and I don’t know how to get out,” Lakhani said. “I’ve been a victim. I am the most unlucky man in the world. God will know if I’m innocent or guilty.”
A “Saudi” in America contacted Lakhani in 2001, shortly after 9/11, when he was looking for investors for a $1-billion Indian Oil refinery project, from which his own cut would be $2.5 million. This character turned out later to be a career informant called Air Haji, also known as Mohammed Habib Rehman. US reports said his main work was as an informant for the FBI and, previously, the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“He projected himself as a very wealthy multi-millionaire businessman,” Lakhani said. “He claimed to know the Saudi Prince Abdullah and said he would invest in the oil project.”
“He planned to entrap me from day one, to make money. And the government backed him utterly, to make me a scapegoat.”
Haji told Lakhani that he represented the Ogaden Liberation Front, a rebel group located between Somalia and Ethiopia. He wanted shoulder-fired missiles, which Lakhani initially could not deliver.
“He wanted 200 pieces,” Lakhani said, as though discussing blouse pieces. “Twenty pieces to begin with and one sample.”
The deal said to be worth $21 million would allow Lakhani a handsome cut — or so he thought.
Eventually, he managed to contact a man called “Sergi” in Ukraine who promised to do the needful but the “Igla” which was smuggled into the US was a dud. FBI and customs agents taped all of Lakhani’s interactions with Haji and jumped him at an incriminating moment at a hotel room in Newark in August last year.
Asked if he knew the sale was illegal, he said: “If you look at it that way, then yes.” But he added: “He (Haji) wanted to entrap me. All along he wanted to entrap me. He was begging and begging me. He’d say I’ve got 20 million, I’ve got 10 million, I’ve got so many million. All these temptations and temptations.”
Lakhani is visited in prison by Sanjay, 39, a clothing salesman in New York, and his wife.
Burying his head in his hands, Lakhani sobbed: “Where did I go wrong? I worked so hard. I worked hard, you have no idea. I like excitement in life, not money. I enjoyed my life.”