US embassy cable - 02AMMAN6182

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 
------------------------ 
 
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 
-------------------------------------- 
 
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 
-------------------------- 
 
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