Michael John Hamdani

Michael John Hamdani is a Pakistani Canadian document forger and immigrant smuggler who has also used the names Amarjit Singh Sangha, Azam Shah, Ranjit Singh and Ahmad Malik. The alert was later determined to have been based on fabricated claims, and officials were criticised for alarming the public before the information had been verified.

Hamdani was arrested in October 2002 after being found with approximately $600,000 in forged traveller's cheques. He later told prosecutors that five Middle Eastern men had sought false documents from him to travel through Pakistan, the United Kingdom and Canada before entering the United States on 24 December 2002. The claim prompted an FBI alert, but the information was later found to be unreliable. Hamdani was arrested again in January 2008 in Guelph, Ontario, where police alleged that he and several family members were operating a forgery business.

Arrested in October 2002 with $600,000 worth of forged traveler's cheques, Hamdani later told prosecutors that Middle-Eastern men had approached him about acquiring documentation to allow them to travel from Pakistan, to England, to Canada, and finally entering the United States on 24 December. He claimed to have been offered a large sum of money, but denied that he had created the false passports.

By 29 December, the FBI had alerted authorities across the country to be on the lookout, transmitting photographs, names and birthdates of five people provided by Hamdani. The following day, a woman reported having seen two of the men on a ferry in Vancouver, British Columbia three weeks earlier. Some media outlets began claiming the men had crossed the border in Mohawk Territory, leading to a complaint from natives that they were being unfairly blamed when no evidence supported the claim. On 30 December, anti-terrorism police stormed six locations in Brooklyn and Queens, New York in connection with the investigation. Authorities then declined to release the other 14 names, due to the "dubious quality" of the information.

Later arrests Hamdani was arrested again in January 2008, along with his wife, son, daughter and son-in-law, for continuing to operate his forgery business while living in Guelph, avoiding police in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver.