“Diamond Enterprise” Boss Pleads Guilty To Racketeering, Interstate Threats, Money Laundering, Fraud
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern
District of New York, announced that ABDURAMAN ISENI, a/k/a “Diamond,” pled
guilty today to eight counts of criminal conduct, including overseeing a
multi-year racketeering enterprise, interstate threats, money laundering, bank
fraud conspiracy, false statements to a bank, and two gambling conspiracy
offenses. ISENI pled guilty before U.S.
District Judge Andrew L. Carter, to whom the case is assigned.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As he admitted today,
Abduraman Iseni led a network of underground gambling establishments to prop up
a criminal enterprise under his control.
Iseni engaged in a series of additional crimes, including money
laundering, threatening a victim with physical violence, and defrauding and
lying to banks in an effort to receive money to which he was not entitled. Thanks to the hard work of our partners at
the FBI, Iseni stands convicted of numerous offenses and awaits sentencing for
his years of crime.”
According to the Indictment, public court filings, and
statements made in court:
ISENI oversaw a racketeering enterprise referred to in the
Indictment as the “Diamond Enterprise.”
The Diamond Enterprise was an organized criminal group operating under
ISENI’s direction. ISENI offered his
protection, connections, and substantial influence in the criminal underworld
to other members of the racketeering enterprise, in exchange for a share of
their illegal profits. The Diamond
Enterprise thrived in part on the revenues generated by a network of illegal
gambling parlors – “Sports Café,” “Friendly Café,” and “Oasis Café” – located
throughout Brooklyn that hosted underground poker games and hosted illegal
sports books. Some of these revenues, in turn, were laundered through a series
of bank accounts in an effort to conceal and facilitate the Enterprise’s continued
operations.
In addition to the Enterprise’s operations, ISENI separately
admitted to threatening a victim with physical violence, and a host of
additional crimes, including money laundering, bank fraud conspiracy, and
making false statements to a bank for the purpose of inducing the bank to
release funds to which ISENI was not entitled.
ISENI, 56, of Staten Island, New York, is scheduled to be
sentenced by Judge Carter on January 18, 2022, at 3:30 p.m. Under the terms of his plea agreement, ISENI
also agreed to pay forfeiture of $349,000.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of New York FBI’s
Balkans and Middle East Organized Crime Squad.
He also thanked the FBI’s Newark Office, the New York City Police
Department, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Small
Business Administration Office of the Inspector General, the Social Security
Administration Office of the Inspector General, the New York State Liquor
Authority, and United States Customs and Border Protection for their
investigative efforts and ongoing support and assistance with the case.
The prosecution of this case is being overseen by the
Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samuel L. Raymond
and David R. Felton are in charge of the case.
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