Former official found guilty of falsifying documents

Zayd Allebban, former Wayne County Director of Enterprise Applications, the office that does software application development for Wayne County, has been found guilty by a federal jury in Detroit on charges of falsifying documents with the intent to obstruct justice, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade recently announced. The purpose of the falsified documents was to conceal a bribery/extortion scheme by Allebban's friend and supervisor, Tahir Kazmi, former Wayne County Chief Information Officer. The evidence presented at trial established that Allebban and Kazmi sought to obstruct justice by seeking to persuade a private contractor to provide false information to the FBI and to a federal grand jury investigating corruption in the Wayne County government. Allebban and Kazmi sought to conceal the fact that the contractor had given Kazmi tens of thousands of dollars in cash and trips to Hawaii, Turkey, and Florida. Allebban was found guilty of falsifying documents that indicated that all payments from the contractor had been repaid by Kazmi, prior to the initiation of the grand jury investigation, with the intent to obstruct the grand jury and FBI investigation. Allebban, as part of the scheme, also delivered $24,000 in cash to the private contractor in an effort to induce the contractor to tell the FBI that the contractor had never given anything to Kazmi. Allebban faces up to twenty years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the two counts of falsifying documents. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Tahir Kazmi pleaded guilty on July 26 to accepting a bribe. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 7. Published: Mon, Feb 25, 2013