By Julia Marnin
The Charlotte Observer
McRAE-HELENA, Ga. — A man serving prison time in Georgia preyed on other inmates’ loved ones and exploited their loyalty in a scheme that defrauded them out of millions of dollars, federal prosecutors charged in a superseding indictment.
Asaad Amir Hasuan, also known as “Dante Frederick,” conned his fellow inmates’ family members and friends into believing he could provide legal help, physical protection and investment opportunities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware.
“At times, (he) led his victims to believe that they or their (incarcerated) loved ones were at risk of bodily harm or even death,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
In 2021, Hasuan promised a Delaware resident he could help an inmate, their loved one, with their criminal case if they paid thousands of dollars, according to the indictment.
In calls and texts Hasuan sent from Telfair State Prison in McRae-Helena, Georgia, he told this individual that a witness in the inmate’s criminal case would “agree to recant her statement in exchange for a $40,000 payment,” and that “he would facilitate that payment,” the indictment says.
You can learn a lot from phone calls, such as plans for contraband being introduced to your facility or planned assaults on staff or other inmates. In the video below, Gordon Graham discusses the importance of checking inmate’s phone records.
He told the victim additional lies, including that the inmate “would be killed unless (they) continued to make payments” to the witness, according to the indictment.
Hasuan caused the Delaware resident to transfer more than $3.5 million in money and property between November 2021 and November 2022, prosecutors wrote in the filing.
He worked with multiple “money mules” to carry out the scheme and launder money that belonged to the victims who were scammed, according to prosecutors.
Hasuan, 43, of Brunswick, Georgia, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering; eight counts of money laundering; one count of wire fraud; and one count of attempted Hobbs Act extortion, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a Nov. 25 news release.
His defense attorney, James F. Brose, didn’t immediately provide a comment when contacted by McClatchy News on Nov. 26.
Eight of Hasuan’s “money mules” were also charged in connection with the scheme, according to prosecutors. All of them are from Brunswick, Georgia, which is about a 70-mile drive northeast from Jacksonville, Florida.
Attorney Caroline Cinquanto, who represents a 59-year-old woman facing one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering, told McClatchy News in an emailed statement on Nov. 26 that her client “did not commit these alleged crimes.”
“We look forward to aggressively challenging these charges in court and proving her innocence,” Cinquanto said.
Another defendant, a 64-year-old woman charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, is a member of Glynn County, Georgia’s board of education, WSAV-TV reported.
Information about her and the other defendants’ legal representation wasn’t listed in court records as of the afternoon of Nov. 26.
More potential victims sought
The indictment says Hasuan defrauded inmates’ friends and relatives while he was incarcerated at the Glynn County Detention Center in Brunswick, as well as Telfair State Prison.
According to prosecutors, the money and property paid by the inmates’ loved ones was laundered by Hasuan and his co-defendants “through various financial transactions, including the purchase of real property, mobile homes, and automobiles.”
They’re also accused of funneling the money through different “cash-based businesses,” including a car rental company called “One Way Auto” which was used as a front in the scheme, according to the indictment.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI are trying to find others who might’ve been defrauded by Hasuan.
The office encourages anyone who’s communicated with him, and is willing to give additional information, to call the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office at 410-265-8080.
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