Dhafir Ordered to Serve 264-Month Jail Term on Resentencing

Sentence Mirrors Original Sentence Received in 2005 Following Four-Month Trial in Syracuse

SYRACUSE, NY—United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian announced this afternoon that U.S. District Judge Norman A. Mordue today resentenced Rafil Dhafir, a former physician from Manlius, New York, to a term of 264 months in jail, and ordered him to pay $865,272.76 in restitution. A Syracuse jury had found Dhafir guilty on 59 federal counts following a four-month jury trial in 2004-2005. Today’s rehearing was conducted following a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that asked District Judge Mordue to consider an alternative way of calculating Dhafir’s sentence. The sentence imposed today mirrors the original sentence imposed by Judge Mordue at Dhafir’s sentencing in 2005.

Dhafir’s 59 felony convictions included violations of the U.S. sanctions against Iraq (a national security violation), a multi-million-dollar money laundering conspiracy, substantive money laundering offenses, a conspiracy to impair and impede the operation of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), causing the filing of a false tax document, tax evasion, visa fraud, health care fraud, false statements, and mail fraud and wire fraud (defrauding donors to his purported charity Help The Needy). In re-sentencing Dhafir, Judge Mordue emphasized that Dhafir’s criminal conduct involved multiple violations of law which took place throughout a four-year period. Judge Mordue also pointed out that Dhafir could have accomplished his humanitarian goals without violating the law if he had chosen to do so. Accordingly, the court concluded that the sentence originally imposed was sufficient, but not longer than necessary, taking into account all of the relevant sentencing factors.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Service-Office of Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the New York State Police. The prosecution was handled by the Syracuse Office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York.