Pakistani man known to Dawood jailed in US

Karachi, April 4: A Pakistani money changer known for his ties with Indian don Dawood Ibrahim has been jailed for 68 months in the US for conspiring to commit money laundering, it was reported on Tuesday. Altaf Khani, who has already spent over a year in a Miami jail, was also fined $250,000 by a Florida court, Dawn online reported. He was sentenced on March 29. The remaining 13 counts of committing money laundering were dismissed at the request of the prosecution for Khani’s cooperation in the probe. According to the US Treasury Department, his clientele included Chinese, Mexican and Colombian crime groups and desigted terrorist organisations. “Khani is known to have had relationships with Lashkar-e-Taiba, Dawood Ibrahim, Al Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed,” the Treasury Department said in November 2015, a few months after his arrest in the US. Dawood Ibrahim is wanted in India for the 1993 Mumbai bombings. Indian security agencies say Ibrahim, origilly an Indian, lives in Pakistan now as a Pakistani citizen. Islamabad denies this.  Khani agreed to plead guilty and “make a full, accurate and complete disclosure... of the circumstances surrounding the relevant offence conduct”, according to the plea agreement signed in October 2016.  (IANS)