Nakoula Basseley Nakoula: Family joins him at secret location

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Nakoula Basseley Nakoula: Family joins him at secret location

September 18th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55 was escorted to the sheriff’s station in Cerritos for interview over alleged probation violation
Family followed early on Monday morning
Nakoula made inflammatory film ‘Innocence of Muslims’, sparking deadly protests across world and American deaths in Libya
In 2010 he was convicted of $800,000 worth of bank fraud
Suspected of using the alias Sam
Bassil during film production but released on condition he didn’t access the internet or use aliases
Nakoula has reportedly denied involvement in the film

By
Daily Mail Reporter and Associated Press

PUBLISHED:

15:26 EST, 17 September 2012

|

UPDATED:

17:07 EST, 17 September 2012

The family of a filmmaker linked to an anti-Islamic movie has left their California home in the middle of the night to join the man in hiding.

A
spokesman with the LA County Sheriff’s Department said that Nakoula
Basseley Nakoula’s relatives, each with his or her face covered, left their Cerritos home about 3:45am on
Monday.

Deputies gave them a ride and they were reunited with Nakoula,
then taken to an undisclosed location.

Family ties: The family of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula covered their faces as they were led out of his Cerritos, California, home early on Monday morning

Not under arrest: Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is escorted from his home by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officers in Cerritos, California on Saturday morning

Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the LA County Sheriff’s Department, told ABC News: ‘They decided they would be safer where they could move about and live a normal life.

‘All we did was pick them up and reunite them with Mr. Nakoula.’

He would not say when or if Nakoula and his family were planning to return – if ever.

He told ABC: ‘What we do know and what they told me is that for the time now and for the immediate future, for the weeks and months to come, they will not be returning to this address.’

Nakoula
wore heavy apparel to disguise his appearance when he left his home
over the weekend.

His family was no different, keeping their faces covered as they were led away by deputies.

Meanwhile, as fresh protests broke out in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Iranian Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi issued an stark message directed at Nakoula.

Condemnation: Iran’s Vice President Mohammad
Reza Rahimi (left) called for the filmmakers to be punished
while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right) called on the West to take action

‘The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns… this inappropriate and offensive action,’ Mr Rahimi said.

‘Certainly it will search for, track and pursue this guilty person who… has insulted 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.’

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also issued a statement, calling on the West to show it respects Islam by blocking the film.

Casualty: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was one of four Americans killed in the Benghazi attack

‘They must prove they were not ‘accomplices’ in a ‘big crime’, he said.

Nakoula was interviewed by federal probation officers, who
are reviewing a 2010 case in which he was convicted of bank fraud.

Federal
authorities have identified Nakoula, a self-described Coptic Christian, as the key figure behind ‘Innocence
of Muslims,’ a film denigrating Islam that ignited violence against
U.S. embassies in the Middle East.

Nakoula later admitted that he produced the film with the help of his 21-year-old son, Abanob Basseley.

The 14-minute clip on YouTube has sparked violence across the Muslim world.

Violence began Tuesday when
mainly Islamist protesters climbed the U.S. Embassy walls in the
Egyptian capital of Cairo and tore down the American flag from a pole in
the courtyard.

Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to
Libya, also was killed on Tuesday along with three other Americans, as
violent protesters stormed the consulate in Benghazi.

A federal law enforcement official told The Associated
Press on Thursday that authorities had connected Nakoula to a man using
the pseudonym of Sam Bacile who claimed earlier to be writer and
director of the film.

Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to
federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more
than $790,000 in restitution.

The man behind it all: Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is escorted out of his home by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officers in Cerritos, California

He was also sentenced to 21 months in
federal prison and was ordered not to use computers or the Internet for
five years without approval from his probation officer.

His attorney cited Nakoula’s poor
health in a bid for leniency and home detention, stating his client
suffered from Hepatitis C, diabetes that require twice-daily insulin
shots, and other ailments that required more than 10 medications a day,
according to a transcript of the sentencing obtained by the AP.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies stand down the street from the suburban Los Angeles home of filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula

Many records in case remain sealed,
but prosecutors sought a longer prison term and noted that he misused
some of his own relatives’ identities to open 600 fraudulent credit
accounts.

Nakoula apologized during the proceedings and his attorney
James D. Henderson Sr. said Nakoula had learned his lesson.

‘He’s clearly gotten the message,’
Henderson said. ‘I can’t imagine him doing anything stupider than what
he did here, but what’s done is done.’

Henderson said during the hearing that
his client had been enlisted by another man to open the accounts and
had only received $60,000 to $70,000 from the fraudulent transactions.

Criminal record: Nakoula, also known as Sam Bacile, is pictured on the set of the controversial film ‘Innocence Of Muslims’

He got involved in the scheme after losing his job in the gas station
industry and had been forced to work for a few dollars a weekend at swap
meets to try to support his children and an ailing father, Henderson
said, according to the transcript.

It could be difficult to establish a
probation violation case against Nakoula. In the federal court system,
the conditions of supervised release are geared toward the offense for
which a defendant was found guilty and imprisoned.

In Nakoula’s case, the offense was
bank fraud. His no contest plea was to charges of setting up fraudulent
bank accounts using stolen identities and Social Security numbers,
depositing checks from those accounts into other phony accounts and then
withdrawing the illicit funds from ATM machines.

While it was unclear what might have
provoked authorities’ interest, the filmmaker’s use of a false identity
and his access to the Internet through computers could be at issue,
according to experts in cyber law and the federal probation system.

Nakoula, who told the AP that he was logistics manager for the film, was
under requirements to provide authorities with records of all his bank
and business accounts.

The probation order authorized in June
2010 warned Nakoula against using false identities.

Nakoula was told
not to ‘use, for any purpose or in any manner, any name other than
his/her true legal name or names without the prior written approval of
the Probation Officer.’

Federal prosecutors had charged that
Nakoula used multiple false identities in creating his fraudulent
accounts.

Several, Nicola Bacily and Erwin Salameh, were similar to the
Sam Bacile pseudonym used to set up the YouTube account for the
anti-Islamic film.

Other pseudonyms used in the accounts ranged from
Ahmed Hamdy to P.J. Tobacco.

Media microphones are pictured outside the home of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula yesterday in anticipation of a statement from the filmmaker

Nakoula was also told he could not
have any access to the Internet ‘without the prior approval of the
probation officer.’

Nakoula was ordered to detail any online devices and
cellphones to authorities and was told his devices would be monitored
and subject to searches.

Jennifer Granick, a criminal defense
lawyer who specializes in online crimes, said authorities might not have
been aware of Nakoula’s online activity even if monitoring devices were
placed on his computers. ‘That may be very hard for a probation officer
to catch ahead of time.’

Granick also noted that Nakoula’s
conviction for financial crimes might provide a basis for probation
officials to review bank and other monetary records.

‘Somebody charged
with a financial crime might receive some supervision categories where
they might re-offend,’ she said.

Nakoula was arrested in June 2009,
pleaded no contest to the bank fraud charges a year later and was
released from federal prison in June 2011 after serving a 21-month
prison term, according to federal records.