Biography
Mohamed Albanna, an American citizen from Yemen, was arrested in 2006 for illegally sending large amounts of money out of the country through an unlicensed company. Authorities alleged that the money was used to support terrorists, but they have no way of knowing. For this, he was given the maximum sentence of 5 years in prison. Albanna was a leader in the Yemeni-American community in Lackawanna, NY, and many have argued that his conviction was motivated by racism.
Albanna also ran and won a seat on the city council of Lackawanna in 2017. However, a court determined him ineligible to hold office because he committed a crime of “moral turpitude” over a decade earlier.
The November 30, 2006 Buffalo sentencing report identifies Albanna as a former vice president of the American Muslim Council’s Western New York chapter and a supporter of the Lackawanna Six. It reports the five-year sentence for operating an unlicensed money-transfer business involving remittances to Yemen. The sentence is distinct from actual admission or completed service, neither of which this report dates. Source: https://www.workers.org/pdf/2006/ww121406.pdf#page=6
Duration consistency review October 13, 2026: The stored exact day count has been cleared because this case does not have verified day-precision confinement endpoints or an independently documented exact number of days served. Existing approximate durations and sentencing descriptions are retained. No missing date has been guessed.
