Iraqi native pleads guilty to obtaining fraudulent license
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An Iraqi refugee from Everett has pleaded guilty to a felony count of paying $1,000 to fraudulently obtain a Pennsylvania commercial driver's license.
In Pittsburgh, U.S. District Judge Robert Cindrich on Friday accepted the guilty plea entered by 27-year-old Haidar Al Tamimi, listed in court documents as Haider Al Tamimi.
Al Tamimi remained free on bond and was to return to Pittsburgh for sentencing May 3.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, but under federal-sentencing guidelines, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nelson Cohen recommended up to six months.
Al Tamimi was among 21 people of Middle Eastern descent arrested as part a nationwide investigation of a Pittsburgh licensing examiner accused of helping them fraudulently obtain licenses, most of which allowed the transport of hazardous materials. The men were arrested in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Washington state.
The arrests came amid concerns that terrorists might use chemical or biological weapons after the Sept. 11 attacks. Federal authorities have since said they found no link between the licenses and the attacks.
Defense attorney Stephen Capone said Al Tamimi is a legal U.S. resident who fled with his family from their native Iraq in 1992 because of terror against them by Saddam Hussein's government. They came to the United States after spending five years in a Saudi Arabia refugee camp, Capone said.
"His father was killed by Hussein's government as well as an uncle and four cousins," Capone said. "More family are in jail."
Al Tamimi flew to Pittsburgh on Dec. 14, 1999, with another defendant, Hussain Sudani, 33, after learning they could buy a Pennsylvania commercial driver's license for $1,000, Cohen said Friday.
License examiner Robert Ferrari, 57, sold them commercial licenses without making them take the proper tests or surrender their noncommercial Washington licenses, Cohen said.
Upon returning home, Al Tamimi unsuccessfully attempted to transfer his bogus Pennsylvania license into a legitimate Washington state commercial license, Cohen said.
Ferrari faces separate state charges, but could receive 1-1/2 to two years in prison as part of a plea bargain if state authorities agree, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum, the lead prosecutor on the case.
Ferrari has been scheduled to plead guilty on Friday, according to court documents.
Al Tamimi, who works at a window-manufacturing plant, said he can't go back to Iraq because authorities there are still looking for him.
"This is my country now," he said.