Tahir Kazmi
Detroit, USA. Rochester Hills resident Tahir Kazmi, 52, who quit as chief information officer on Wednesday, was charged along with Dearborn resident Zayd Allebban, the county’s director of enterprise application.
Wayne County Commissioner Kevin McNamara, D-Canton Township, welcomed the charges.
Kazmi allegedly extorted the unnamed vendor by demanding cash and pricey trips in exchange for Wayne County contracts.
The IRS and FBI raided Kazmi’s home on 9 February 2012. The warrant targeted Wayne County contracts and related documents.
Lawyers for Kazmi and Allebban could not be reached for comment.
On 12 January 2012, FBI Special Agent Robert Beeckman interviewed a county contractor who had regular dealings with Wayne County’s information technology department. The contractor claims to have given $80,000 to $90,000 in cash to Kazmi in addition to paying for those trips. “Kazmi even demanded that (the contractor) give 49 percent of his company to Kazmi’s brother-in-law,” Beeckman said in the affidavit. The contractor’s story in contrast to what Kazmi had told the FBI two months earlier.
Shortly after the beginning of the investigation, Kazmi, as well as Allebban, contacted (the contractor) in an effort to establish what (the contractor) should say to protect Kazmi from the detection of his wrongdoing should (the contractor) be contacted by the FBI,” Beeckman said in the affidavit.
Kazmi also allegedly tried to get the contractor to sign a fake promissory note to support the loan ruse. Kazmi allegedly even threatened suicide if the contractor were to tell his story to the FBI.
Two days later, Allebban allegedly gave the contractor $14,000 that supposedly came from Kazmi. It was to be used for credit card charges the contractor had incurred for Kazmi’s travel. Kazmi was among those receiving subpoenas.
The complaint also claims Kazmi pressured one of his workers in the Wayne County Information Technology Department to erase information from county-owned laptop computers, apparently used by Mullin and Elder. One email discovered by the FBI in Kazmi’s records didn’t exist in the county’s electronic archives.
