From ABC-7 (Chicago)
Rashid Minhas, 42, is charged with misrepresenting his ability to sell travel packages for the Muslim Hajj that included the visa required to enter Saudi Arabia.
Minhas was charged with mail fraud in a criminal complaint that was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court. The federal complaint was unsealed Thursday morning following his arrest, without incident, at his North Side Chicago home. Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan ordered him held until a detention hearing next Tuesday, as prosecutors argued that he committed fraud while he was free on bond the past year.
Agents also searched his business, Light Star Hajj Group, located at 5801 Northwest Hwy., Chicago, according to federal investigators. Mr. Minhas previously operated a travel agency in Chicago called City Travel & Tours.
“He never told us there have been any issues with getting a visa,” said Farzana, an alleged victim. “He did send us a flight schedule, but our passport, our tracking number wasn’t even uploaded. That’s the time we got concerned and tried to contact him.”
From this disappointed Hajj pilgrim in Southern California to distraught Muslims in Chicago’s south suburbs, bitterness abounds when it comes to Minhas.
Farzana, who asks that the I-Team only use her first name, says she had no idea that Minhas was out of bond for allegedly doing the very same thing to other Muslim faithfuls in 2009.
Minhas leaves a long trail of customers who say they were jilted, including some who met with him in New York in 2011.
This letter from Minhas to customers who had their Hajj trips cancelled a few weeks ago blames it on God:
“We understand how your heart is feeling,” he wrote, “but if Allah doesn’t want to invite you, than no one can take you to Mecca/Medina.”
