January 31, 2008

FRAUDULENT PASSPORT APPLICATION EARNS SACRAMENTO MAN ONE-WAY
TICKET TO PRISON

Sacramento – United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced today that ANWAAR ALI MUHAMMAD (also known as Bilal Amir Dhakir, Devon Anthony Barrett, and Hassan Ismail Muhammad), 32, of Sacramento was sentenced today by United States District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton to 12 months in prison. The defendant pleaded guilty to submitting a fraudulent passport application on November 14, 2007.

This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the Diplomatic Security Service, Department of State.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Kyle Reardon, who prosecuted the case, Judge Karlton, in sentencing the defendant, said that the defendant submitted the fraudulent passport application on March 2, 2006, in an attempt to replace a previously obtained fraudulent passport. Judge Karlton found the defendant’s criminal history to be extensive. This history included fraud and theft offenses dating back to 1996 that took place in the Sacramento area, Alameda County, Southern California, and Washoe County, Nevada.

In this case, MUHAMMAD applied for a passport in San Francisco using the name and birth date of a person similar in size and height to MUHAMMAD, presenting a California Identification Card with that person’s identifying information. A joint investigation between the Oakland Police Department and the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service determined that the passport application was false.

MUHAMMAD was indicted on April 5, 2007 by a federal grand jury and was eventually apprehended by Sacramento police after he attempted to pass counterfeit currency at Arden Fair Mall.

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For more information on federal criminal defense law, contact the Law Offices of Joseph Shemaria of Los Angeles, California.