Posted on Fri, Aug. 31, 2007

The Portuguese man arrested in a bizarre Miami Beach bank robbery in March was denied entry into the country at a New Jersey airport five days before the attempted heist because a fake social security card was found in his luggage, new court documents show.

Although Paulo Almeida was forced to return to Portugal, he managed just days later to get past customs officers at Miami International Airport.

Then, on the morning of March 27, Almeida walked into Miami Beach's First Commercial Bank carrying a black suitcase.

Thousands of miles away, Almeida's reported accomplice, Allan Sharif, angrily phoned the bank teller and demanded that $20,000 be given to his partner.

The strange saga has raised questions about why U.S. Homeland Security officials would allow Almeida, 45, into the United States days after refusing him entry at Newark International Airport.

Authorities with Miami's U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a division of DHS, declined to talk about the Almeida case.

But Janet Rapaport, a CBP spokeswoman in Newark, said a "lookout" order should have appeared in the agency's computer database system alerting others that Almeida had been denied entry into the United States.

Documents filed this month in Miami federal court describe the March 22 encounter at Newark International Airport -- itself as strange as the Beach bank robbery:

TIP PHONED IN

Before Almeida arrived, someone claiming to be an FBI agent, also calling himself "Elvis Tejada, " tipped off law enforcement officers that Almeida was coming to the United States to meet Sharif to "produce fake $500 Euro bills."

Almeida was traveling without a visa because Portuguese citizens generally fall under a waiver program that allows them to enter the United States without one.

That day, Almeida waited in line at CBP in Newark. His cellphone kept ringing but he refused to turn it off.

Officers pulled him from the line and interviewed him in Portuguese.

"Almeida repeatedly claimed to 'have no idea' who Sharif was, " according to court records. "Almeida's phone then received an incoming call from one of the numbers associated with 'Elvis Tejada.' "

An officer answered Almeida's phone.

Sharif was on the other line. He asked that his friend be set free.

Calls were put on speaker phone and Almeida admitted that he knew Sharif, 27.

Almeida "claimed that Sharif had set him up, that he did not want to enter the U.S. and that he wanted to return to Portugal to deal with Sharif, " the documents show.

Almeida picked Sharif -- who was wanted in New York on 2003 fraud charges -- out of a photo lineup.

He described Sharif as his brother-in-law and provided officers with his home address in Portugal.

Almeida, a slaughterhouse owner in Portugal, claimed he was picking up a package for Sharif in New York but that someone was supposed to meet him in Newark to provide more details.

A "secondary examination" by customs officers revealed the fake social security card in his luggage.

Almeida was not charged criminally with carrying a false document because he had not technically been allowed on U.S. soil.

AWAITING TRIAL

For the Miami Beach incident, Almeida is in a federal detention center in Miami without bail, charged with attempted bank robbery and conspiracy to commit bank robbery.

It is unclear what charges Sharif, who is on the lam, may face for his role.

Almeida and Sharif were friends in a rural village of Portugal and had reportedly been in criminal cahoots there.

According to U.S. court documents, Almeida in January 2006 took out a loan from a Portuguese bank, giving kickbacks to Sharif and a bank manager.

A Portuguese newspaper reported last month the bank later sued Sharif, and Almeida was supposed to testify in a civil trial against his pal. Sharif purportedly sent Almeida to the United States, plotting to get his friend arrested -- leaving him unable to testify.

Almeida took out the one million Euro loan because his slaughterhouse business was in financial ruin, the Lisbon Diario de Noticias reported.

In September 2006 in Portugal, Sharif and Almeida had also been involved in a "hoax kidnapping in which one of them was a purported victim, " according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Almeida's attorney, assistant federal public defender John Wylie, could not be reached for comment.

UNWITTING DUPE?

But Frank Rubino, a high-priced lawyer who briefly defended Almeida, said previously that Almeida was an unwitting dupe who had no idea his friend was trying to rob a bank.

Rubino, who defended former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, left the case because Almeida's family could not afford him.

Rubino had said Almeida was merely a tourist who was asked by Sharif to pick up a package at the Miami Beach bank, 425 41st St.

In court documents, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Koukios suggested Almeida knew all along of the plans to rob the bank.

Proof, he posed: If Almeida had been set up once by Sharif in New Jersey, why would he fall for the scam a second time in Miami?

"Nor is it likely that Sharif would twice attempt to secure Almeida's release if Sharif had gone to all this trouble to 'set up' Almeida, " Koukios wrote.