NJ man admits to sprawling $325 million check casher scheme

🔴 Owner of NJ check casher business pleads guilty to felonies

🔴 Helped conceal hundreds of millions in money transfers

🔴 Scheme involved bags full of cash

KEARNY — The owner of a New Jersey check casher business has admitted to a nine-figure scheme.

Ali Hassanein, 68, pleaded guilty to two felony financial charges in U.S. District Court in Camden on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Hassanein owned a New Jersey-based check casher and money services business called Galaxia International Inc., federal prosecutors said.

The company's website, which has several typos and grammatical errors, boasts of its plans to have 50 branches across the United States plus an expansion of services to Europe and Latin America by 2020.

The website lists only four branches: two in Jersey City, one in East Orange, and another in Brooklyn. And it said another in New York was "Comming Soon [sic]."

Concealed millions of dollars in money transfers

Under the Bank Secrecy Act, the company Hassanein owned was required to file a report for every transaction exceeding $10,000.

However, Hassanein admitted he flouted the law and helped a conspirator hide $325 million in transactions.

"These requirements play a vital role in helping law enforcement prevent, detect, and stop illicit activity. Ali Hassanein admitted that he and Galaxia flouted these requirements, which undermined the financial system and made Galaxia an easy target for bad actors," said U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger.

From 2019 through February 2023, he filed thousands of false reports in exchange for a cut of the money. The reports lied about the individuals involved in the transactions, where they took place, and how much money they involved.

Bags full of cash

According to a criminal complaint, in one case Hassanein got money from an armored truck at one of Galaxia's locations in Jersey City and carried it to another within the city.

Hassanein handed a bag full of $200,000 in cash to his conspirator. When he later filed reports, he only recorded $124,230 and wrote that it happened in East Orange.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause a financial institution to file false currency transaction reports and operating and aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Hassanein will be sentenced in April 2025.

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