The United States Attorney's Office

Northern District of Iowa

Press Releases

MOROCCAN NATIONAL PLEADS GUILTY TO SOCIAL SECURITY FRAUD

July 10, 2007

Contact: Kandice Wilcox

United States Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth announced today that a Moroccan national charged in the Fall of 2001 with Social Security fraud pled guilty July 9, 2007 in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

ABDEL ILAH ELMARDOUDI came to the United States from Morocco and lived in several cities in the United States including Chicago, Illinois and Dearborn, Michigan. He was charged with access device fraud (a scheme to obtain phone card numbers and sell them) in Minnesota in 2001. He became a fugitive after walking away from a halfway house in the fall of 2001. After his arrest in North Carolina in November 2002, he was taken to Detroit, Michigan where he faced terrorism-related charges. These charges were later dismissed. In 2006, he was convicted and sentenced on access device fraud charges in Minnesota. ELMARDOUDI was returned to Iowa in the fall of 2006 to face Social Security fraud charges.

In August 2001, ELMARDOUDI used the alias “Jean Pierre Tardelli” to obtain a Social Security number in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At the plea hearing, ELMARDOUDI admitted he used the fraudulently-obtained Social Security number to obtain an Iowa identification card and to attempt to open a bank account in Cedar Rapids.

ELMARDOUDI pled guilty to one of the two charges he faced. The other count will be dismissed at sentencing. ELMARDOUDI reserved the right to appeal adverse rulings on several motions to dismiss he filed prior to trial.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a pre-sentence report is prepared. ELMARDOUDI remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. ELMARDOUDI faces a possible maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and three years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kandice A. Wilcox and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, the Social Security Administration, the Iowa Department of Transportation, the Cedar Rapids Police Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.