United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS, MEAT PROCESSING PLANT OWNER ARRESTED ON WIRE FRAUD AND FALSE STATEMENTS CHARGES

SAN ANGELO, Texas — The owner of American Halal Meat Processors, Inc., in San Angelo, Texas, Mohammed Fayyaz Hayat, was arrested Monday on charges outlined in a federal indictment returned by a grand jury in Lubbock last week, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Hayat made his initial appearance on Monday in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Philip R. Lane in U.S. District Court in San Angelo, who released him on $50,000 bond. An arraignment date has not yet been set.

The indictment charges Hayat with four counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting and two counts of making a false statement to a bank and aiding and abetting. The maximum statutory penalty, upon conviction, for each wire fraud count is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count. The maximum statutory penalty for each false statement count, upon conviction, is 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine per count.

In June 1999, Hayat and his wife, Roohi Fayyaz, incorporated American Halal Meat Processors, Inc., in Texas, to operate a halal slaughtering business. Halal butchering is the Islamic ritual in which an animal’s throat is cut to allow removal of all blood. Hayat purchased a closed meat processing plant located on N. Bell Street in San Angelo, paying $50,000 at closing and signing two promissory notes, totaling $625,000 to the seller. Halal and his wife also owned an auto repair garage business in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in the late 1990's, lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The indictment alleges that beginning in April 2002 and continuing until February 2007, Hayat devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud and obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises to convince three potential lenders in Minnesota to provide financing and lines of credit to him to supposedly expand his automotive repair business in Minnesota and make improvements to the Minnesota property. He then, however, used these proceeds to fund renovations at his property inTexas. He also used materially false and fraudulent representations and documents to convince two additional lenders that he had sufficient collateral and income to repay the financing he was seeking when, as he well knew, he didn’t have sufficient collateral or income t repay the financing. He was charged with wire fraud for the wiring of the money from the banks in Minnesota and then for making false statements to the banks for the loans he received in Texas.

An indictment is an accusation by a federal grand jury and a defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Cruce-Roberts of the Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case.

.

###