Fraud suspect well known to Muslim community

A Palm Beach County man accused of repeatedly committing fraud while working undercover as an FBI informant has a long history of preying on charitable people, Muslim community leaders say.

Mohammed Agbareia — considered a “national security asset” by the FBI — was arrested June 21 on the latest allegations against him.

He has pleaded not guilty to six federal fraud charges covering the 10-year period since 2007. He operated a “stranded traveler” fraud that netted him more than $300,000 since 2011, prosecutors say.

Agbareia, now 51, began working as an informant after he was extradited from Canada to Alabama and pleaded guilty to operating a similar fraud in 2006 when he was 37, court records show.

Muslim groups had already spent years lobbying for his extradition and helping investigators to try to catch him. Agbareia was suspected of defrauding people around the world since about 1986, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“We were after this guy for years because he was such a prolific con artist,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman for CAIR. “He’d get everyone from goodhearted cab drivers to doctors and whoever else sending him $1,500 a pop.”

“I always said this guy would make a great informant for the FBI,” Hooper said. “He’s exploitable and he seeks to exploit.”

Hooper said Agbareia kept a detailed database of information about Muslim leaders, which he used to impersonate them. Agents said Agbareia has repeatedly admitted he called potential victims he was supposed to meet, told them his wallet and plane tickets were stolen and asked them to wire him money.

Agbareia admitted in 2006 that he operated a fraud that relied on the Islamic tradition of helping travelers in distress. The Palestinian man was sentenced to two years in federal prison, ordered to pay $91,000 in restitution and was supposed to be deported to his native Israel after serving his punishment.

But court records in the Alabama case show the judge later agreed to reduce his prison term to one year, in response to a sealed request from the government. After his release in November 2006, he moved to the West Palm Beach area in October 2007 and began providing information “pertaining to national security,” court records show.

Hooper said he’s not surprised that federal authorities say Agbareia resumed his fraud almost immediately after getting out of prison: “Why not? It was wildly successful for him. He didn’t pay much in terms of punishment.”

Agbareia, who currently has no legal immigration status in the U.S., is jailed in Palm Beach County. He had been hoping to persuade a magistrate judge to release him on bond during the second day of a detention hearing Thursday in federal court in West Palm Beach.

But after his attorney Donnie Murrell said he wanted to call witnesses to testify, federal prosecutors said they were concerned that classified information about national security matters might be publicly revealed.

The case has now been sent up the chain to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra, who will hear arguments from both sides about the potential issues regarding classified information at a July 6 hearing in West Palm Beach.