Biography & Early Wealth Journey
Photo via Jericho/Wikimedia Commons
The 48-year-old Yemeni-born man was attempting to fly from JFK to Qatar on March 1st. As part of the standard airport security process, a US Custom Border Patrol officer asked Mr. Altareb to declare how much money he was carrying on his journey. Mr. Altareb put down $6,500 on a form. When he was asked to show agents the money, he ended up pulling out $5,870 in cash.
He was probably just guesstimating too high, but either way his actions and appearance made the agents suspicious. So the officers began a routine search of Mr. Altareb's bags. Pretty quickly, they started discovering wads of crisp $50 and $100 bills stuffed in a wide variety of drug store items, clothing pockets and shoes.
Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts
The drug store items included boxes of hand soap, Thera-flu, Splenda, Alka-Seltzer and Band-aids.
According to the criminal complaint that was filed in court yesterday, "Cash was also hidden in soles of shoes, and in the lining of a jacket inside of one of the checked bags."
When questioned about the money, Mr. Altareb responded: "We are trying to build a building in Yemen. This is my brothers', two brothers' money."
Altareb was charged with "bulk cash smuggling" and is being held without bail in Brooklyn.
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Real Estate, Luxury Assets & Personal Investments
Obviously, this raises some eyebrows. It's hard not to jump to a salacious conclusion when an Arab man is caught trying to travel to an Arab country with lots of unreported cash. Maybe it's completely, 100% innocent and he really just wants to build a building. I won't stir the controversy any more than necessary…