Sad news: Osama El-Atari found murdered. Many of us had met Osama at various car events in the area a few years back. Then, we learned of his life insurance crimes and he was sent to prison. Now, this horrible news. Victim identified in Upper Marlboro homicide - Story | WTTG UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - The Prince George's County Police Department has identified the victim of a homicide in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. 37-year-old Osama El-Atari of St. George's Court in Leesburg was found dead of a gunshot wound just before 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 13. He had previously been reported missing on February 11. He was found inside of a pickup truck in the 9000 block of Armstrong Lane and pronounced dead on the scene. Detectives are working to identify a motive and suspect(s) in the case. Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the Prince Georges County Police Departments Homicide Unit at 301-772-4925. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call CRIME SOLVERS at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), text PGPD plus your message to CRIMES (274637) on your cell phone or go to Prince George's County Crime Solvers, Inc. | and submit a tip online. A reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and indictment in this case. . Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here is a pic of Osama and one of his exotic cars, back in the day. . Image Unavailable, Please Login
I spoke with his family a few years back, they still run the wing factory in Reston, heart broken and disillusioned by his behavior, they were moving on. I remember when he received the 1st Scuderia in the area, red with gold wheels. Here is a pic of the car. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ron. Why was he not in jail? He defrauded banks out of $60MM and was looking at 15 years in jail in 2010? I dunno, but not sure "sad" is the right word for this exactly. This was not a good dude who made a little mistake, right? Edit - seems he was also a jailhouse snitch, and ratted on a murderer and an al-Shabab terrorist, which got him an early release. Probably not a way to live a long, healthy life. D
I figure there has got to be more to the story. When the police catch Osama's killer(s), then hopefully we'll learn more. Just goes to show that you can't be sure about everyone you meet at car events. Here is that Washington Post article from Feb 12th describing some of Osama's history in jail. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/02/12/osama-el-atari-loudoun-scam-artist-and-jailhouse-informant-is-missing/ Osama El-Atari, Loudoun scam artist and jailhouse informant, is missing. Osama El-Atari, the colorful restaurant owner, fast-car driver, bank-scammer and jailhouse informant from Loudoun County, has disappeared, the Loudoun sheriff’s office said Friday. El-Atari formerly owned the Original Steakhouse and Sports Theaters in Ashburn and Woodbridge, owned a mansion in Ashburn and boasted of a vast luxury car collection. But he was found to be defrauding banks for big loans, was charged by the feds, and vanished from Loudoun in 2009. He was located in Texas in 2010, pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining about $71 million in loans, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But while in jail in Alexandria and Arlington, he met a man accused of aiding the al-Shabab terrorist group and provided information to the authorities on him. Then, while in jail in Arlington in 2010, he met Jorge Torrez, a Marine accused of murdering a Navy sailor in Arlington in 2009. Court records show El-Atari wore a hidden recorder and captured Torrez discussing both the sailor’s slaying and the 2005 deaths of two girls in Zion, Ill., Torrez’s hometown. Torrez received the death penalty in the Arlington case, and is now back in Illinois awaiting trial on the slayings of the two girls. El-Atari, meanwhile, sought a sentence reduction for his significant cooperation in the two cases, and federal prosecutors in Alexandria agreed. In May 2014, El-Atari was released after serving 51 months of his 144-month sentence. [From Aug. 2014: Osama El-Atari, flashy Loudoun scammer, converts jailhouse info to prison release] The Loudoun sheriff’s office said Friday afternoon that El-Atari was reported missing by family members Thursday, and that he was last seen around 5 p.m. Wednesday in the 1600 block of Rochelle Avenue in Capitol Heights, Md. El-Atari is described as 5’6” tall, 200 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He drives a 2015 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck with Montana tags. Anyone with any information regarding his possible whereabouts is asked to contact Detective S. Schochet of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office at 703-777-0475. Loudoun sheriff’s spokeswoman Liz Mills said she could not comment on whether investigators are linking El-Atari’s disappearance to his prior activities, and said deputies are “working with other area jurisdictions to confirm his last known whereabouts.” .
Wow. We have certainly had brushes with scandalous types in the ferrari world. Glad it remains the exception. This is still a sad time for his family I'm sure.
I know his brother. Lives in the same community. Used to see him around the golf course before I gave it up. Sad. But you know, you live like that...
It was always all a fraud and a sham and a scam that was paid for or going to end up being paid for by honest people / taxpayers. People who knew - knew, even if they didn't fully know. But a lot of people would googoo and gaga over his cars and interest only and underwater and fraudulently obtained and full tilt mortgaged "mansion". Little did they know that in a not so indirect way they were paying for the whole myopic and narcissistic "look at me I'm a big shot" scam. Exact kind of people Trump says we don't need coming.... "thanks for your interest but stay right where you came from if you can't play by the rules". Pathetic IMO. And there's greed to go around, you think some of the bankers and mortgage brokers and car dealers who were feeding the stage props didn't know what was going on?? Or at least half going on? Come on. From what I've heard all of his cars had full notes, fraudulently obtained notes, on them. He was a highly respected and admired "icon" in his extended ethnic community and will probably remain to be so. Kudos to all of you who do it right and play by the rules, and if it wasn't for us people who do it right and keep the whole thing going there would be nothing for these dirtbags to scam.... stealing something from zero is zero. Remember this when you vote. If you feel sorry for Bernie Madoff then maybe feel sorry for this guy. RIP nonetheless.... nothing is worth the ultimate price.
This guy scammed a friend of mine out of 150k. At the time he thought he was a good friend and then the guy just quit responding back to him and then all the stuff hit the fan. Pretty short sentence for that size of a theft.
Caught that did ya? Saves him BIG on VA taxes. As I understand it, Virginia is death to car owners. D
That was the first thing that jumped out to me. After everything he went through with the scams, he was running montana tags on a dodge ram. I sort of understand why guys do it on the ferrari's/lambo's that they don't drive very often but on a dodge ram that he probably drove daily. Some people never learn. Also, he was found in pg county...
Yep, the Virginia Personal Property Taxes on a car are pricey. The tax rate in Loudoun County is 4.2% of the current retail blue book value of the car. Loudoun County is where Osama, Piper, and me live. So, on a new $300k Ferrari, that would be $12,600 per year. The tax amount will go down slowly every year as the car's blue book value goes down. The State pays 46% of the tax for the first $20k in value of the car. That is a max of $386.40 of tax reduction for cars worth over $20k. So, on a Dodge Ram Truck that's worth maybe $30k, the tax is only $873.60 ($1260 - $386.40). Buying Montana plates to avoid $900 per year in taxes seems to be a lot of work for not much savings. .
Ron- I'm not trying to **** on your thread, but why is this sad news ? From what I can tell, the guy was a thief and the world is a better place without him. What am I missing ? Mike
It's a sad story because someone was murdered. He may have done bad things, but I don't think those prior bad acts justify murder. He leaves behind family. Without minimizing his crimes, most of the accounts above indicate that he wasn't a horrible guy except in his business and financial dealings.
I hear what you are saying. And I agree that Osama definitely had some serious faults and quite the history. But, to me, no one deserves to get killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (which is one possibility of what happened). We are likely to learn later that there's even more to the story. What was he doing in PG County? His family knew he was going to Capital Heights, MD but the news articles never said why. I can think of lots of possibilities but none of them would be based on any facts. For example, maybe it was something as innocent as he was meeting a seller of some item off of Craigslist and he got killed over carrying $300 in cash on him? Or, maybe it was something much more sketchy. Hopefully the future news articles that come out over time will reveal what really happened. In the mean time, I think it is okay with calling it "sad news" until we find out more to the story. .
And in his prison dealings as well. He ratted out a couple really bad dudes to get his sentence cut short. Unfortunately, I think they'll find that it also shortened his life. I must admit, I don't have a ton of sympathy for the guy, but still, being a thief, and a rat doesn't equate to a death penalty offense. D
Thanks for the response Ron. I happen to take a pretty hard line on this sort of thing, having been scammed once as a young adult. IMHO, when you steal someone's money, you're also stealing their time- the time that they spent making that money; the time away from their wife and kids; the time they could've spent relaxing or working out or reading or socializing. Mike
That is awful. Sorry your friend got scammed for that much money. I knew he had gotten huge loans from banks for tens of millions of dollars that weren't collateralized correctly but didn't realize he also took significant money from individuals. .
So, it would be less bad to defraud an institution? It may be less personalized, but there are still victims. CW