The owner of the limousine company that provided the vehicle involved in Saturday’s deadly crash in upstate New York had been working as an FBI informant.
The New York Post obtained Federal Department of Transportation records showing that Prestige Limousine service is owned by Shahed Hussain of Gaansevort. On Sunday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters at a Columbus Day Parade in New York City that Prestige Limousine provided the limo to the group of friends and siblings killed in Saturday’s crashed, and that the vehicle had failed an inspection a month ago. The crash killed all 18 people in the car, including the driver, along with two bystanders.
The New York Post confirmed that Hussain’s address matches his address from September 2010 bankruptcy records showing that he was an informant for the FBI in an anti-terrorism sting that led to the arrests of four men.
A 2012 Mother Jones profile of Hussain described him as “one of the FBI’s more successful counterterrorism informants.”
“He’d originally come to the bureau’s attention when he was busted in a DMV scam that charged test takers $300 to $500 for a license.”
Additional Mother Jones reports on Hussein describe the scam as one that helped people cheat on DMV tests.
According to the New York Post, Hussein lives at Crest Inn Suites and Cottages in Gaansevort, which the manager reportedly described as “transitional housing.”
The manager also said that state police had come to the apartment complex on Sunday night looking to speak to Hussein, but the report did not state that they reached him there.
[Feature image: AP Photo/Hans Pennink]
