Imam to enter prison Aug. 13

Imam Shamsud-din Ali must turn himself in to U.S. marshals to begin serving an 87-month sentence on Aug. 13, according to Ali's attorney.

The decision came yesterday in a late afternoon conference call among U.S. District Judge Bruce Kauffman; Ali's attorney, James "Jimmy" Binns, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor.

Earlier yesterday, Labor filed two motions to revoke Ali's bail and to seize his $650,000, two-story stone Colonial home to satisfy a $286,764 forfeiture debt.

Located in an exclusive gated community, Latham Park, the home with a swimming pool is expected to be sold by the company which holds its $500,000 mortgage, and the government is expected to receive the proceeds up to the amount of the forfeiture.

Ali was convicted of 22 of 36 counts of racketeering, fraud, extortion, commercial bribery and conspiracy on June 14, 2005. He pleaded guilty to four tax-evasion counts.

The once prominent imam, who rubbed elbows with the city's movers and shakers, was responsible for kicking off a widespread investigation in 2001 into public corruption in the city, at financial institutions, at Philadelphia International Airport and elsewhere.

Investigators overheard Ali talking to a drug dealer in a wiretapped conversation, resulting in his investigation, and Ali led them to others.

From 2001-2003, according to prosecutors, Ali masterminded eight illegal money-making schemes, using Sister Clara Muhammad School, which he and his wife headed. His wife, Faridah, is serving a two-year term in federal prison in Danbury, Conn.

At the same time that the couple was pocketing the ill-gotten gains, students in the Islamic school wore overcoats because of a lack of heat.

The jury also found that Ali had defrauded the city in connection with delinquent property taxes, attempted extortion of waste haulers, bribed a telecommunications executive and defrauded school benefactors.

Kauffman sentenced Ali to 87 months in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $365,000 to four victims of fraud and extortion, and to forfeit $286,646, a total of more than $650,000.

He also had to pay a $2,600 special assessment, and must undergo five years of supervised release. *