Recent political corruption scandals plaguing the city of Hamtramck have now resulted in some criminal charges.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office and other law enforcement agencies have been investigating election fraud complaints there for some time now. Specifically, four members of the city council were accused of filling out pre-signed absentee ballots, among other election-related interference.
Now two of those council members, Mohammed Hassan and Muhtasin Sadman, have been charged with multiple felonies and a misdemeanor. They include forging a signature on an absentee ballot application, another separate count of forgery under the state's election law, and an unqualified elector attempting to vote.
The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office is handling the case after Nessel passed it off, citing concerns over perceptions of bias. Nessel’s office has said those concerns stem from accusations of anti-Muslim bias after she charged pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan with crimes (the charges were later dismissed); and Nessel’s 2023 appearance in Hamtramck to decry the city’s decision to ban the LGBTQ Pride flag from public spaces — a measure that Hassan introduced on Council.
Both Hassan and Sadman are Muslim and immigrants from Bangladesh. Michigan Public was unable to reach either for comment on the charges, though Sadman told the Detroit Free Press that the charges were "fully made-up, to make our community, the Muslim and Bangladeshi community, look bad."
In a statement, Monroe County Prosecutor Jeffery Yorkey said that “several law enforcement agencies conducted thorough investigations and submitted their findings to our office.”
Public officials in Hamtramck have been complaining to the Michigan Attorney General’s office and others about alleged election fraud there for years, and have sought help from law enforcement with little success until now.
“The election fraud in this City is catastrophic and has reached a point that would defy belief if it wasn’t so out in the open,” City Manager Max Garbarino wrote to Nessel’s office in March. “We have another significant election rapidly approaching. Without your immediate and decisive action from your office, the abuses of the election process in this City will only intensify.
Garbarino was suspended from his job in May after he suspended the city’s police chief, and later filed a whistleblower lawsuit claiming it was an act of retaliation for that and other steps he had taken. They include investigations of council members over the alleged voting irregularities, as well as alleged residency requirement violations.
Hamtramck City Clerk Rana Faraj expressed similar frustrations in another March letter to Nessel’s office.
“As you know, Michigan voters supported the 2022 ballot proposal designed to enhance election security, including the use of cameras at absentee ballot drop boxes,” Faraj wrote. “Those cameras have done exactly what they were intended to do: they've captured clear evidence of suspicious activities, like multiple instances of large batches of absentee ballots being dropped into boxes at once, strongly suggesting a single individual rather than multiple legitimate voters. These incidents were properly documented and turned over to the authorities."
“The blatant double standard here is infuriating," Faraj's letter continued. "If I, as City Clerk, deviated even slightly from election procedures, I'd immediately face investigation and prosecution. Yet, someone who brazenly breaks the law sees no repercussions. If election integrity matters at all, enforcement needs to be consistent and fair.”
FBI agents also visited Hamtramck City Hall in May, but the agency's Detroit field office would not say why agents were there or confirm the existence of an open investigation.
