BY RUI FERREIRA El Nuevo Herald found at miamiherald.com
April 18, 2007
Almeida, 45, is in a cell in Miami federal prison waiting for a court hearing
that still has not been scheduled. He was arrested March 29 at the Commercial
Bank on 43rd Street in Miami Beach.
`THIS IS A HOLDUP'
money in the bank mortgage newspaper
Almeida entered the bank at mid-morning on that day and, according to the
charges, handed a cellphone to a teller and asked her to talk to someone on the
line. An unidentified male voice told the teller that she should place $20,000
in Almeida's briefcase, saying ``this is a holdup.''
The teller asked Almeida to sit on a nearby sofa while she collected the
money. Minutes later, the police showed up and arrested him.
After an initial investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
identified the voice on the phone as that of Allan Sharif, 27, born in the
United States to an Arabic father and a Portuguese mother. He is sought by New
York State authorities for fraud.
Sharif moved to Portugal in 2002 after fleeing from the police. Since then,
he has lived in the village of Torre de Tavares, next to Almeida's birthplace.
The two struck up a friendship, Diario de Noticias said.
SWINDLED BY Money FRIENDS
Apparently, Almeida was deep in debt and needed a bank loan to prevent the
shutdown of his slaughterhouse. However, ''he never received that money, and his
lifestyle as a big spender sealed his fate,'' friend Antonio Paulo told the
newspaper.
''It was easy for others to convince him to do something,'' Paulo said. So,
``he allowed himself to be tricked by Sharif and the bank manager, both of whom
gave him some money.''
The bank was identified as the state-owned Caixa Geral de Depósitos, which
sued Sharif and three bank employees because they kept the million Euro loan
intended for Almeida.
''When the bank became aware of the swindle and began to investigate, the
four men devised a way to keep [Almeida] from testifying against them in
court,'' the newspaper said.
''Desperate over his indebtedness and being someone who is easily tricked,
Almeida traveled to the United States after Sharif told him that he should pick
up a sum of money held by a contact there,'' Paulo said.
The Lisbon newspaper learned that Almeida joined Sharif in the commission of
some crimes and has a criminal record in Portugal for fraud and bodily assault.
The way the alleged swindle was perpetrated was simple: the bank managers
approved credits in Almeida's name; he signed the papers but they kept the
money.
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