Original Blog Entry: Woman caught at airport with $170,000 in her underwear

truesee — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:09:04 GMT

Queens woman Claire Abdeldaim caught with nearly $170,000 hidden in her underwear at JFK

John Marzulli

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Tuesday, March 8th 2011, 4:00 AM

Updated: Tuesday, March 8th 2011, 8:54 AM

Ward for News

Claire Abdeldaim leaves Brooklyn Federal Court, where she's on trial for trying to slip nearly $170,000 hidden in her underwear past federal agents at JFK.

A Queens woman nabbed at Kennedy Airport with nearly $170,000 hidden in her underwear was trying to avoid paying taxes on the sale of property in Sudan, the feds said Monday.

Claire Abdeldaim's real estate booty consisted of 1,699 $100 bills, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer George Wolynski testified Monday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

We got a big one, Wolynski told his supervisor after seizing the cash last June.

Abdeldaim, 64, had sewn the bills into her bloomers to get the money out of Sudan, where she had sold a tract of land owned by her late husband.

During a layover in Amsterdam on a flight from Khartoum, she removed the underwear in a bathroom and stashed it in her purse. When Abdeldaim arrived in New York, she claimed she had only $17,000 in her purse.

But Wolynski noticed the fabric stuffed in the purse and became suspicious. I was quite shocked at the amount of currency, he said.

Abdeldaim is free on $100,000 bail and faces up to 21 months in prison if convicted of the smuggling charge.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer John Carman suggested Wolynski wouldn't allow the defendant to amend the declaration form because the officer stood to receive a salary bonus for the huge seizure.

He also argued that Abdeldaim - who is from Haiti and speaks with a heavy accent - innocently left a zero off the money total she declared on her customs form due to a language barrier.

But the contention that her English was shaky was undercut by testimony that she supervises social workers at a Bronx nursing home.

Wolynski said he gave Abdeldaim numerous chances to say how much money she was carrying, and she stuck to her story. When confronted with the evidence, she finally confessed.

She said she was told by a friend not to declare all the money, Wolynski said.

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