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Press Release

Queens Man Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To 15 Years In Prison For Conspiracy And Attempting To Provide Material Support To Hizballah

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that PATRICK NAYYAR, 50, an Indian citizen who was residing illegally in the United States, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 15 years in prison for crimes related to support he attempted to provide Hizballah, a designated foreign terrorist organization. NAYYAR was convicted in March 2012 after a seven-day jury trial, and he was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Sweet.

According to the Superseding Indictment filed in Manhattan federal court and the evidence presented at trial:

Between July 2009 and September 2009, NAYYAR and his co-conspirator, Conrad Stanisclaus Mulholland, agreed to provide weapons, ammunition, and vehicles to Hizballah, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization based in Lebanon. During a series of meetings with a confidential informant working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), who represented himself as able to deliver materials to Hizballah, NAYYAR and Mulholland agreed to sell guns, ammunition, vehicles, bulletproof vests, and night-vision goggles to the confidential informant. During these meetings, NAYYAR and Mulholland also provided the confidential informant with a handgun, a box of ammunition, and a pick-up truck, believing that the confidential informant would deliver the items to Hizballah in Lebanon.

NAYYAR’s co-conspirator Mulholland, 47, who is not a citizen of the U.S. and resides abroad, left the U.S. before charges were filed, and remains at large. The charges against Mulholland are pending, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The case is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Sean Buckley and Stephen Ritchin are in charge of the prosecution.

Updated May 15, 2015

Press Release Number: 14-311