JORDAN: ASSISTANCE IN TELEMARKETING FRAUD

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 006182

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DOJ FOR OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - SNOW
L/LEI FOR SULLIVAN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EFIN CJAN JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN: ASSISTANCE IN TELEMARKETING FRAUD
INVESTIGATION

This is an action request.


1. (sbu) Summary. The government and Central Bank of
Jordan and the Union Bank for Savings and Investment told the
Embassy they will cooperate fully with a Department of
Justice investigation of a telemarketing fraud that used
Union Bank as an apparently unwitting channel for
transferring funds out of the United States. Union Bank says
that information provided so far by DOJ and the U.S. Attorney
in New Hampshire indicates that after passing through many
hands, cashiers and other bank checks had been presented to
the Union Bank branch in Ramallah for payment or deposit by
local Palestinian and/or Israeli money changing businesses.
The Bank never had contact with the beneficiaries of the
checks and victims' funds are not now, and most likely never
were, in the possession of the Union Bank. Given its
preparedness to cooperate fully (it has already begun
contacting the U.S. attorneys involved),the bank would
appreciate help in releasing funds seized by court order from
its U.S. correspondent bank account. End Summary.

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Central Bank Cooperation
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2. (sbu) Economic counselor and Legatt met October 21 with
Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) Deputy Governor Dr. Ahmed
Mustafa to transmit a request from the U.S. Department of
Justice for assistance in the criminal investigation of a
telemarketing fraud. Specifically, the request asked the
Jordanian authorities to immobilize, seize and repatriate
proceeds in the amount of approximately $2.3 million that had
been fraudulently obtained from U.S. victims and deposited in
the Union Bank for Savings and Investment, which is
headquartered in Amman. The request also informed the
Jordanian authorities that a similar amount had been seized
by court order from Union Bank's correspondent account at the
Bank of New York in New York under the authority of Section
319(a) of the USA Patriot Act.


3. (sbu) Mustafa accepted the request and pledged that the
CBJ would cooperate to the fullest extent with the U.S.
government to ensure that any assets identified in Jordan
that had been wrongfully taken from victims in the United
States were returned to their owners. He said that the CBJ
would work with the Union Bank to identify such assets.
Mustafa, noted, however, that this could be difficult given
the limited amount of information contained in the DOJ
request. Since only photocopies of cancelled checks and not
names of suspected account holders were available, he thought
it could be difficult to quickly determine whether such
assets were still on deposit at the Union Bank.


4. (sbu) Mustafa said that the Jordanian financial
authorities were prepared to work with the U.S. government in
all such cases. The CBJ has the ability to freeze suspected
accounts in a matter of hours following receipt of a request.
Mustafa also expressed great concern about the possibility
that the U.S. court order could unintentionally cause serious
damage to the reputation of the Union Bank, which appeared to
be innocent of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, he reiterated
the Bank's commitment to work with the U.S. government to see
that justice was done. An official in the office of Foreign
Minister Marwan Muasher to whom we separately presented the
same request provided similar support.


5. (sbu) Following up on our request, Mustafa and Central
Bank Governor Umayya Toukan met with Union Bank officials at
approximately 4 p.m. Jordan time (after the execution of the
court order in the U.S.) to ensure their cooperation in
seizing subject assets in Jordan. During this meeting,
Toukan phoned economic counselor to request that the embassy
meet with Union Bank management the following morning
(October 22). Union Bank officials told Toukan that they had
already learned of the court action in the United States.

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Union Bank Also Ready to Work with USG
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6. (sbu) As requested by Toukan, economic counselor met
Union Bank for Investment and Savings Chairman Isam Salfiti,
Deputy General Manager Ammar Haddadin, and Legal Advisor
Nabil Rabah on October 22 at the bank's headquarters.
Salfiti and his senior staff echoed the Central Bank's
commitment to work closely with U.S. authorities to identify
and seize such assets so that they could be returned to
victims. They were very worried, however, that it would not
be possible to identify such assets and that the Union Bank
and its stockholders would end up bearing the cost. They
said Union Bank officials in Amman and at the Union Bank
branch in Ramallah in the West Bank had been working since
the previous evening to find or reconstruct documents related
to the cancelled checks. In addition, the branch has stopped
accepting U.S.-origin checks.


7. (sbu) Salfiti explained that the Union Bank branch in
Ramallah serves as a high-level clearing house for the large
network of money exchange businesses in the West Bank and
Israel. In some cases, this service is also provided to
Israeli banks. The checks in question appeared to have been
presented for deposit or payment at the Union Bank Ramallah
branch by wholesale money changing businesses that were most
likely located in Jerusalem. These businesses appeared to
have in turn accepted the checks from smaller scale
moneychangers in Israel or the West Bank. Acting like
check-cashing businesses in the United States, these retail
moneychangers had accepted the checks from clients, most
likely providing cash shekels, dollars, or Jordanian dinars
in return for a commission. Given that the checks were
cashier or bank checks, these clients may or may not have
been personally known to the moneychangers. Neither they nor
the Union Bank branch would have had any reason to refuse or
mistrust such high-quality checks.


8. (sbu) The role of the Ramallah branch was to deposit the
checks at in the Union Bank account at the Bank of New York.
The Ramallah branch does this directly, without any funds
passing through bank headquarters or branches in Jordan.
Salfiti said that none of the beneficiaries of the checks
thus would have held accounts at the Union Bank. In
addition, since the checks in question appeared to be two
years or so old, he strongly doubted that any assets
currently on deposit at the Ramallah branch could be linked
to the checks under investigation.


9. (sbu) Salfiti pledged that the Union Bank in Jordan and
the Ramallah branch would completely cooperate with the U.S.
investigation. Work was underway at the Ramallah branch to
attempt to reconstruct the chain of moneychangers through
which the checks had passed (the bank has digital images of
all the checks, which it would be ready to share). In
addition, Legal Advisor Rabah had contacted the U.S.
Attorney's Office in New Hampshire and was attempting to
reach the U.S. Attorney in Pennsylvania to offer the bank's
assistance. Bank officials were prepared to meet U.S.
investigators in the United States. They would also be ready
to introduce U.S. investigators to the West Bank money
changing establishments.

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Comment and Action Request
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10. (sbu) Union Bank understands that it has thirty days to
file a claim in the U.S. court to ask for the return of its
assets. Given the cost in effort and legal fees of such an
effort and the bank's spirit of full cooperation, they asked
economic counselor if the U.S. Attorney would be ready to
take the initiative to return to the bank the funds seized in
the United States. From the embassy's perspective of seeking
full cooperation from the Jordanian government and banks in
returning the victims' stolen money, we believe that the
cooperative approach the bank has sketched out is likely the
only effective way to achieve the desired result. Both the
CBJ and the Union Bank were perplexed as to why the U.S.
Government would feel it had to resort to what felt like
coercive measures to obtain their cooperation. We would
appreciate any information or guidance that we could share
with the CBJ and/or Union Bank.
GNEHM