CLEVELAND Two brothers face bad-check charges

A judge has ruled that their lawyers cannot use ethnicity as a defense.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Two Arab-Americans accused of writing bad checks totaling $300 million are expected to go on trial today in a case that has raised concerns about whether the brothers are being tried because of their ethnicity.
Defense lawyers have said the rights of Elie and Michel Abboud were violated and that they were targeted for prosecution after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
The Abbouds are accused in federal court of 79 charges that include bank fraud, conspiracy and tax violations.
Accusation
The government accuses the brothers of running a check kiting scheme through 13 bank accounts in 1999 to support their check-cashing business.
To obtain money, the brothers inflated balances at two banks by depositing worthless checks, authorities say. The brothers then covered the overdrafts with more checks drawn against other banks, the FBI said.
U.S. District Judge John Manos ruled last week that their lawyers cannot use ethnicity as a defense.
"If the events of that day had any effect on the prosecution, it was to delay indictment, since law enforcement resources were diverted to terrorism," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Kall said in a court filing.
The brothers were indicted June 14, 2002. Elie Abboud, 50, is from Hinckley, and Michel Abboud, 48, is from North Randall. Both towns are near Cleveland.
"Whatever the accusations are, we are totally innocent of it," Elie Abboud said then. "We dealt with these banks for years and years. None of these banks have lost a penny. I still don't see where the crime is. Our relationship with the banks was fully authorized and fully collateralized."
Background
The brothers own several grocery stores, as well as the check-cashing business. They contributed to several politicians, and Elie Abboud has served as president of the National Arab-American Business Association.
In the past few years, Eli Abboud has lobbied Congress, pushing for Arab-American causes, including greater U.S. trade with Syria and Lebanon
In 1993, authorities raided his Shop & amp; Go Food Mart in North Randall in an investigation of food-stamp trafficking. A clerk was convicted.
Michel Abboud was sentenced to six years in prison in 2001 for having his housekeeper held captive at his home while he and an off-duty police officer searched her apartment and her boyfriend's home, looking for money that Abboud accused her of stealing.
An appellate court overturned the conviction, and county prosecutors are set to try him again March 22.
In documents, the Abbouds' lawyers said the brothers worked with the banks for more than 10 years and never had a problem. They said the banks made thousands of dollars in service fees from them.