During the 1990s, Prouty and her sisters Rula and Elfat, along with Samar Nabbou (later Spinelli) all worked for Lebanon native Talal Khalil Chahine, owner of the Dearborn-based, Detroit area LaShish chain of Middle Eastern restaurants.
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| Talal Khalil Chahine |
While Prouty was trying to obtain her U.S. citizenship, Chahine wrote a letter on her behalf to U.S. immigration officials attesting to the validity of her marriage to Chris Deladurantaye.
In 2000, sister Elfat married Chahine. Over the next six years, according to the government, Elfat helped her husband hide $20 million from the IRS, most of which the couple sent back to Lebanon. Much of the cash went into the coffers of Hezbollah.
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| Sheikh Muhammad Fadlallah |
In 2002, Talal and Elfat Chahine traveled to Lebanon to attend a fundraising event for Hezbollah. The event's keynote speakers were Chahine and the terror group's spiritual leader Sheikh Muhammad Fadlallah, whom the U.S. government has named a "specially designated terrorist." The government also contends that Fadlallah issued the fatwa, or religious justification, for Hezbollah's 1983 suicide truck bomb attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Marines, soldiers, and sailors.
Fadlallah's support of suicide bomb attacks has been well documented. He once said, "What martyrdom is greater than making yourself a human bomb detonating it among the enemy?"
In 2005, Talal Chahine married a second Lebanese woman, with whom he maintained a separate suburban Detroit home.
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| Logo: US Department of Justice |
The following year, a federal grand jury indicted Talal and Elfat Chahine for tax evasion. Talal, whose son was convicted of murder in 2005, fled to Lebanon, leaving behind his wife, their three children, and his chain of restaurants. Elfat later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Last month, the Justice Department filed additional charges of conspiracy, bribery, and extortion against Talal Chahine, who remains a federal fugitive.
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