(WXYZ) — A federal indictment claims that a metro Detroit group use fake businesses to send large amounts of money to the Middle East, according to documents filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division.

According to court documents, from August 2014 to March 2015, Hitham Noma and others allegedly worked to created phony businesses and used them as "fronts" to send money to Yemen and other countries.

The group also created an unlicensed money transmission business and charged users a fee to wire money to foreign countries.

The group allegedly used other people as "front" to create the phony businesses. Some of those people were paid a flat fee or a percentage in exchange for acting as a "front."

They then allegedly used the wire transfer system to send $9 million dollars to foreign countries.

The scheme involved many bank accounts and banks, including Bank of America, Comerica Bank, JP Morgan Chase and PNC Bank.

Read court documents below:



Hitham Noman by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd



