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Philadelphia School Official Pleads No Contest to Fraud, Racketeering

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

By Kitty Caparella, Philadelphia Daily News

Sep. 26--Faridah Ali had no trouble cheating shivering students of an education by diverting money to her pocket from the Sister Clara Muhammad School, where she was assistant director.

She had no problem falsifying documents to buy an $86,000 Mercedes-Benz for her so-called "world leader" husband, Muslim cleric Shamsud-din Ali, now a convicted felon with 87 months to serve in jail.

Or getting a $200,000 home equity loan from Chase Manhattan Bank, falsely claiming a $182,000 salary on a W-2 form, to pay off the Benz.

Or ripping off an adult basic education program that was funded by Community College of Philadelphia.

But yesterday, Ali, 57, of Melrose Park, did have one problem at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Bruce Kauffman to change her plea: Admitting her guilt.

"I don't feel well today. I just think it's my nerves," said Ali, 57, who was whimpering, on the verge of tears.

Despite government objections, Ali entered a plea of nolo contendere to 24 counts of racketeering, wire- and mail-fraud and tax evasion.

In other words, Ali said, she would not contest the facts of three of the four illegal money-making schemes involving the Benz, the home equity loan or the CCP scam, for which she was charged last February in a 55-count federal racketeering indictment.

"She's pleading no contest so she can tell Muslim believers she never admitted to any crimes," said a former Ali associate and member of the Philadelphia masjid. "She's just manipulating the system."

Her defense attorney, Gail Weilheimer, said that Ali would contest the same five fraud counts that her husband was acquitted of during his racketeering trial four months ago.

Faridah would not admit defrauding several union contributors to Sister Clara Muhammad School, said Weilheimer. Nor would Ali admit to soliciting drug dealers for money for the rundown, unheated school, the same as her husband.

Her husband is appealing his racketeering conviction, based on what his attorney considers "prejudicial" drug evidence, which the government used to prove an uncharged illegal money-making scheme of the racketeering conspiracy and tax evasion counts.

According to wiretapped conversations in that trial, Faridah urged her husband to tap dealers for money.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor III objected to the nolo contendere plea, saying that neither the Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice or U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan approved it.

"The policy of the Department of Justice is not to consent to nolo contendere pleas except in unusual circumstances," he added.

But Kauffman said he was using his discretion to accept Ali's plea. The judge made sure that Ali understood that by not contesting the government facts, he would enter a plea of guilty to the 24 counts.

Ali told the judge she had a Ph.D. based on her "life experiences," but failed to mention it was bought on the Internet from a diploma mill, as evidence entered earlier in two trials showed.

Besides soon opening a clothing store, Ali told the judge she was "volunteering" at Sister Clara Muhammad School -- the headquarters for the "criminal enterprise" in the indictment, where she and her husband used their influence with politicos and powerbrokers to conduct their illegal money-making schemes.

"Just because she entered a nolo plea to certain things, and not to other things, does not bind us," said Labor.

On Nov. 14, Ali could face a mini-trial for conspiracy and four counts of mail fraud in which the government would have to prove Ali deliberately defrauded the Islamic school of $62,435 in labor donations.

Or the government could present the evidence at Ali's sentencing on Jan. 4.

Weilheimer said Ali faces about two years in prison, while Labor said the sentence depends on several variables, including whether the judge finds Ali guilty of five contested fraud counts.

On the racketeering count alone, her sentence could range from 30 to 41 months, depending on whether her prior CCP fraud conviction is computed in the sentence.

A week ago, her husband was ordered to pay restitution of $365,000 to four victims of fraud and extortion, and to forfeit $286,646, a total of more than $650,000.

She also faces forfeiture.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Philadelphia Daily News

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JPM, DCX,

Source: The Philadelphia Daily News

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