U.S. CITIZEN?:
No (Indian-born
Briton)
INFORMANT: FBI (also Russia's FSB)
CHARGE: Selling missile to Somali jihadist
TWIST: Terrorist fake, missile fake; Lakhani paid by IOU
OUTCOME: Sentenced to 47 years
When Hemant Lakhani was arrested in August 2003, President Bush declared it "a pretty good example of what we're doing in order to protect the American people." Sadly, he may be right.
Lakhani, 72, was the ultimate middleman, selling everything from clothes to oil. At one point, he'd arranged the legal sale of armored personnel carriers to the Angolan government. Perhaps for that reason, after 9/11 Lakhani was approached by an FBI informant posing as a Somali jihadist who said he wanted anti-aircraft missiles for a plan to "hit the people over here." Lakhani, whom friends describe as a "loser" who always fell for a get-rich-quick scheme, promised, "It will be done." "Do these people also have submarines?" asked the informant. "Yes," Lakhani assured him, "they're expert in this."
Over the next year, Lakhani crisscrossed the Ukraine in an unsuccessful bid to get the missiles. Eventually, the Russian police learned of his efforts and, working with the FBI, sold him an inert missile. For which he paid with a promissory note.
When Lakhani presented the fake missile to the fake terrorist, he was arrested for real. He was convicted of attempting to provide material support and sentenced to 47 years. At least one juror regrets voting to convict. He "wasn't never gonna get no missile," Gussie Burnett told This American Life. The FBI "knew he wasn't gonna get one either. That's why they bought it and set it right there in his lap. Because as far as I'm concerned, the man was entrapped. I shoulda held out."