Former Chicago City Comptroller Pleads Guilty To Forgery Case In Pakistan
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel's former comptroller, Amer Ahmad, has admitted in court in Pakistan that he forged documents to flee overseas.
But he will not be getting a slap on the wrist anytime soon for making a fake Pakistani National Identity Card and birth certificate, an official in the South Asian country said.
Ahmad, who fled to his parents' homeland this spring, had his bail application for the crimes rejected by a judge in Lahore this week, according to Usman Anwar, the Punjab region director for the Federal Investigation Agency, Pakistan's version of the FBI.
He is "pleading guilty and asking for [a] fine as punishment," Anwar said in an email to the Sun-Times.
However, the FIA has maintained that under the law, Ahmad can be penalized with fines and prison time as well and argued that he should not be granted bail.
The judge agreed.
The FIA has since submitted to the court an official charge sheet against Ahmad, Anwar said.
For now, Ahmad will remain jailed in Pakistan for now. He has yet to be sentenced for breaking the laws there.
Ahmad "wants to get convicted and stay in Pakistan," a source said recently.
His father has since flown to the country and also expressed he wanted his son to stay in Pakistan, the source said.
Ahmad, 39, was arrested in Pakistan in late April with a fake Mexican passport, a forged Pakistani visa and thousands of dollars in an apparent attempt to avoid prison time for the fraud he committed while he was Ohio's deputy state treasurer.
In December, Ahmad had pleaded guilty to being part of a large kickback and money-laundering scheme.
Ahmad had been free pending his sentencing and had continued to live in Chicago since resigning from his $165,000-a-year City Hall post last summer.
He was forced to surrender his passport and was facing up to 15 years in prison and restitution of $3.2 million.
While on the lam, Ahmad kept a diary of his time on the run, detailing how he was able to get the fake documents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border by foot.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
