Seven individuals and three companies face charges for alleged money laundering, illegal remittance services and usury crimes. The Federal Attorney-General filed the charge, which has eight counts, at the Federal High Court Lideta Division two weeks ago.

Azeb Mehreteab, founder of JJ Properties and Boston Real Estate; Temesgen Yilma, the general Manager at TTH Trading Plc; Haregewoin Tedla, an American citizen; and Efrem Mulatu, an actor, are among the defendants. The aforementioned three companies are also included in the charge.

The first count, which has Azeb, Haregewoin and Efrem as defendants, claims that the defendants were involved in alleged usury crimes. Haileyesus Mengistu, founder of The Big Apple International, owner of New York Café & R humanitarian estaurant, and Cosmo Trading, signed a 50-million-Br loan agreement with Azeb on behalf of the first defendant, Haregewoin, at nine percent of usurious rates for six months, according to the charge. Efrem signed onto the agreement as a witness.

As collateral, the lender took the title deed of a seven-storey building, which is owned by Haileyesus and is estimated to be worth 250 million Br. About 3.2 million Br of it was transferred from Azeb into Haileyesus's account, according to the charge. With the main aim of making the transition look legal, Azeb then prepared documents that show JJ Properties bought the building for 60 million Br, claims the charge. Ephrem and Azeb signed as witnesses on the agreement, which Haileyesus did not sign, claims the charge.

After noticing Haileyesus did not sign the agreement, the defendants charged him by claiming that he took 19.8 million Br, according to the prosecutor. They also pressured him to start negotiations with them and transfer all shares of Cosmo Trading, as well as his promise to transfer the seven-storey building, an excavator, construction machinery, and three vehicles into their ownership.

Under the second count, Azeb and Temesgen were charged for alleged money laundering. They took over the managerial positions at Cosmo Trading and received 61-million-Br and 10-million-Br bank loans as working capital, of which 21 million Br was used to service Cosmo's debt. They transferred 32 million Br in two rounds into JJ Properties's account, a company managed by the duo, the charge claims.