Kansas City, Mo. — A Saudi Arabian national who was arrested during a national search for terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks pleaded guilty Tuesday to one federal charge of bank fraud.
Adel F. Badri, 26, of Warrensburg, admitted that he forged three checks totaling $10,750 on a Maryland bank account and deposited them in Warrensburg.
Badri came under suspicion when officials at his school Wentworth Military Academy contacted the FBI after the attacks. Since then, prosecutors have said there's no evidence he was linked to terrorism.
Badri admitted that in October of last year, he deposited three checks, in the amounts of $3,500, $3,750 and $3,500, into his overdrawn account at Bank Midwest in Warrensburg. All three checks were forged and drawn against an account of a Virginia woman in Chevy Chase, Md.
Under a plea agreement, three counts of bank fraud, four counts of money laundering and one count of interstate transport of a forged security will be dismissed.
But the plea agreement allows the judge to consider other criminal activity alleged in the indictment, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Those allegations include that in May 2000, Badri negotiated a $1,219 check from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher Education, and three days later deposited a copy of the check in Bank Midwest.
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