Dear SANE Subscriber, Member, or Friend, Welcome!
This week we are providing you with
a news scoop of a sort, especially if you live in the LA area. The latest press
release on the CAIR-racketeering-fraud lawsuit being prosecuted by the Law Offices
of David Yerushalmi, P.C. is scheduled to go out on the PR Newswire at 9:00 am
ET today.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
District Director for California
State Senator Carol Liu (21st District) served in a federal fraud and
racketeering lawsuit.
For more information: David
Yerushalmi, Esq. Law Offices
of David Yerushalmi, P.C.
ContactYerushalmiLaw@verizon.net
www.DavidYerushalmiLaw.com
Tel: 646.262.0500 Fax: 801.760.3901
June 15, 2009 – Washington,
DC: The District
Director for California State Senator Carol Liu (D-La Cañada) was served last week
in a federal fraud and racketeering lawsuit. Tahra Goraya was served on Wednesday,
June 10th while at work at the state senator’s Glendale office serving
the 21st District.
Goraya served as “national director” of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations at the time of the alleged fraudulent
scheme perpetrated by CAIR and its national leadership in Washington, D.C.
According to the complaint filed by former CAIR clients in November 2008,
Goraya was directly involved in the fraud and cover-up. Goraya apparently resigned
from CAIR sometime after the fraudulent scheme was fully underway and moved back
to her home state of California. There she took a job as District Director for
California State Senator Carol Liu. Goraya was served with the summons and complaint
at Senator Liu’s Glendale offices. She has until June 30th to file her
response with the court.
The federal
racketeering (or RICO) lawsuit was filed November 18, 2008 in the United States
District Court for the District of Columbia by four former CAIR clients. The complaint
alleges criminal fraud and racketeering against CAIR, a self-described Muslim public
interest civil rights law firm. The lawsuit also names CAIR’s national leadership,
including Goraya, as individual defendants.
The lawsuit
alleges that Morris Days, who served as the “Resident Attorney” and “Manager for
Civil Rights” at the now defunct CAIR chapter in Herndon, Virginia, was in fact
not an attorney and that he defrauded hundreds of CAIR clients by failing to provide
legal services for which they had paid.
While attorney
David Yerushalmi represents the four plaintiffs in this particular lawsuit, two
of whom are African American Muslims, the complaint alleges that according to CAIR
internal documents, there are hundreds of victims of the CAIR-Days fraud scheme.
According to the complaint, CAIR failed
to conduct a background check on Days prior to hiring him and when they did discover
his massive fraud, rather than inform their clients and authorities, they immediately
set about to conspire with Days to continue the fraud and to cover it up. CAIR
officials purposefully concealed the truth about Days from their clients, law enforcement,
the Virginia and D.C. state bar associations, and the media. When CAIR began fielding
irate calls from clients about Days’ failure to provide competent legal services,
CAIR fraudulently deceived their clients about Days’ relationship to CAIR, suggesting
he was never actually employed by CAIR, and even concealed the fact that CAIR finally
fired him for criminal
fraud.
“The evidence has long suggested that CAIR
is a criminal organization set up by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to further
its aims of stealth Jihad in the U.S.,” Mr. Yerushalmi was quoted at the time of
the filing referring to the fact that CAIR has been named by the federal government
as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial
which led to multiple convictions, including at least one CAIR founding member
and senior executive.
“But our investigation and this complaint
make clear that CAIR’s criminal activities know no bounds,” Yerushalmi continued.
“According to the facts as carefully laid out in this complaint,” Yerushalmi
explained, “CAIR has engaged in a massive cover-up of a criminal fraud in which
literally hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized and because of the CAIR
cover-up they still don’t realize it. The fact that CAIR has victimized Muslims
and non-Muslims alike demonstrates that CAIR is only looking out for CAIR and its
ongoing effort to bilk donors out of millions of dollars of charitable donations
thinking they are supporting a legitimate organization.”
After serving
all of the defendants except Morris Days and Tahra Goraya, the plaintiffs learned
that Days had died from lung ailments and Goraya had left for California. Because
the 120-day time limit to serve the summons and complaint was nearing, the court
granted the plaintiffs more time to serve Goraya and this was accomplished last
week.
Goraya is the director of the 21st District
office of Senator Liu, which serves Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge,
San Gabriel, Temple City, and the Los Angeles communities of Tarzana, Encino, Reseda,
Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, North Hollywood, Silverlake, Los Feliz, Eagle
Rock, Echo Park, Atwater Village, and Chinatown.
The CAIR defendants
have filed a perfunctory motion to dismiss, which the parties fully briefed and
submitted to the court in mid-March of this year. Mr. Yerushalmi said he expects
the court’s ruling at any time. When asked about next steps, Mr. Yerushalmi said:
“We are fully confident the court will deny the CAIR defendants’ motion and allow
discovery to proceed. We are eager to begin examining CAIR’s internal documents
and taking testimony. In the meantime, we have heard from additional former CAIR
clients and victims and expect to either call them as witnesses or include them
as additional plaintiffs.”
The complaint also alleges that in addition
to covering up the Days fraud scheme, CAIR officials in D.C. forced angry clients
who were demanding a return of their legal fees to sign a release that bought the
client-victims’ silence by prohibiting them from informing law enforcement or the
media about the CAIR-Days fraud. According to the agreement, if the “settling”
clients said anything to anyone about the fraud scheme, CAIR would be able to sue
them for $25,000.
This enforced code of silence left hundreds
of CAIR client-victims in the dark such that to this day they have not learned
that Days is not an attorney and that he had not filed the legal actions on their
behalf for which Days and CAIR publicly claimed credit.
The complaint
identifies CAIR as a racketeering enterprise under the federal Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which is a criminal racketeering statute
that allows victims to sue the defendants in civil court. In addition to damages,
the plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief under this and other statutes to shut
down CAIR and to prevent the individual defendants from engaging in public interest
legal work in the future.
The named defendants are: the Council on
American-Islamic Relations Action Network Inc. (dba CAIR); Nihad Awad aka Nihad
Hammad who serves as executive director of CAIR National; Parvez Ahmed who was
the chairman of the board of CAIR National during the relevant time period; Tahra
Goraya who was the national director of CAIR but who has since resigned; Khadijah
Athman who is the manager of the “civil rights” division of CAIR; and Nadhira al-Khalili,
Esq., who is in-house legal counsel for CAIR.
According to
the complaint, CAIR’s in-house Washington, D.C.-based attorney Khalili was directly
involved in taking the legal files out of the CAIR Virginia office and concealing
them in the D.C. office.
Also named as defendants are Ibrahim Hooper
and Amina Rubin, CAIR’s director of communications and coordinator of communications,
respectively. According to the complaint, these two were directly responsible for
issuing fraudulent press releases about the Days fraud scheme, thus aiding and
abetting the CAIR cover-up.
About David Yerushalmi,
Esq.
David Yerushalmi
has been practicing law for 25 years. He is a litigator specializing in securities
law, public policy relating to national security, and public interest law. Mr.
Yerushalmi is licensed and practices in Washington D.C., New York, California,
and Arizona.
* * *
As always, those of us at the
SANE Works for US web journal continue
our focus: To strengthen America’s national existence by probing
a new and deeper discussion of the issues others fear or just avoid. We are convinced
that with integrity of purpose and thought, graced with civility, the SANE message
will pierce the fog that lies heavy on the ground. All the best,
Staff
Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE)(SM)
http://www.saneworks.us | 
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