Nakoula Basseley nakoula

Nakoula Basseley nakoula,The Californian man behind the anti-Islamic movie that has caused outrage across the Muslim world emerged from hiding this morning to be interviewed by federal probation officers.

With his face obscured behind a hat, glasses and a scarf, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55 was taken to a sheriff's station in his hometown of Cerritos by deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department.

Convicted fraudster Nakoula is under investigation by probation officers to determine whether his inflammatory film 'Innocence of Muslims' has violated the terms of his release, which could land him back in prison.

And one of the film's actresses has spoken out, insisting she had no idea about the movie's content when she agreed to act in it.

After arriving at his home just after midnight deputies escorted Nakoula to an awaiting car and he was taken to the station where he was questioned over his involvement in the film production which has been blamed for the mass protests across the Middle East which resulted in the death of four American citizens on Wednesday.

Convicted of $800,000 worth of bank fraud in 2010, Nakoula, who is suspected of using the alias Sam Bassil during the production of the controversial film was released on the condition that he did not access the internet or use aliases.
After arriving at his home just after midnight deputies escorted Nakoula to an awaiting car and he was taken to the station where he was questioned over his involvement in the film production which has been blamed for the mass protests across the Middle East which resulted in the death of four American citizens on Wednesday.

Convicted of $800,000 worth of bank fraud in 2010, Nakoula, who is suspected of using the alias Sam Bassil during the production of the controversial film was released on the condition that he did not access the internet or use aliases.
Nakoula, who has denied involvement in the film in a phone call to his Coptic Christian bishop, was ushered out of his home and into a waiting car by several sheriff's deputies, his face shielded by a scarf, hat and sunglasses.
The crudely made 13-minute English-language film, filmed in California and circulated on the Internet under several titles including 'Innocence of Muslims', mocks the Prophet Mohammad.
The film sparked a violent protest at the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi during which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed on Tuesday. Protests have spread to other countries across the Muslim world.
For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is blasphemous. Caricatures deemed insulting in the past have provoked protests and drawn condemnations from officials, preachers, ordinary Muslims and many Christians.
U.S. officials have said authorities were not investigating the film project itself, and that even if it was inflammatory or led to violence, simply producing it cannot be considered a crime in the United States, which has strong free speech laws.
Two attorneys visited Nakoula's home hours before he was taken in for questioning. They said they were there to consult with him.
The violent protests over the film in Libya caused mob attacks in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo was attack by protesters yesterday and demonstrations against American consulates spread to Yemen on Thursday and on Friday to several other countries across the Middle East.
Nakoula, whose name has been widely linked to the film in media reports, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2010 and was sentenced to 21 months in prison, to be followed by five years on supervised probation, court documents showed.
He was accused of fraudulently opening bank and credit card accounts using Social Security numbers that did not match the names on the applications, a criminal complaint showed. He was released in June 2011, and at least some production on the video was done later that summer.
But the terms of Nakoula's prison release contain behavior stipulations that bar him from accessing the Internet or assuming aliases without the approval of his probation officer.
A senior law enforcement official in Washington has indicated the probation investigation relates to whether he broke one or both of these conditions. Violations could result in him being sent back to prison, court records show.

Clips of the film posted on the Internet since July have been attributed to a man by the name of Sam Bacile, which two people linked to the film have said was likely an alias.
A telephone number said to belong to Bacile, given to Reuters by U.S.-based Coptic Christian activist Morris Sadek who said he had promoted the film, was later traced back to a person who shares the Nakoula residence.
Stan Goldman, a Loyola Law School professor, said whether Nakoula is sent back to jail over potential probation violations linked to the film, such as accessing the Internet, was a subjective decision up to an individual judge.
'Federal judges are gods in their own courtrooms, it varies so much in who they are,' he said, noting such a move would be based on his conduct not on the content of the film.
As well as the fraud conviction, Nakoula also pleaded guilty in 1997 to possession with intent to manufacture methamphetamine and was sentenced to a year in jail, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office.
The probation department is reviewing the case of Nakoula, who was previously convicted on bank fraud charges and was banned from using computers or the Internet as part of his sentence. The review is aimed at learning whether Nakoula violated the terms of his five-year probation.
Karen Redmond, a spokeswoman for the administrative office of the U.S. courts, confirmed Friday the review is under way.
Federal authorities have identified Nakoula, a self-described Coptic Christian, as the key figure behind 'Innocence of Muslims', a film denigrating Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that ignited mob violence against U.S. embassies across the Middle East.
A federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday that authorities had connected Nakoula to a man using the pseudonym of Sam Bacile who claimed earlier to be writer and director of the film.
Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution.
He was also sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and was ordered not to use computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.
His attorney cited Nakoula's poor health in a bid for leniency and home detention, stating his client suffered from Hepatitis C, diabetes that require twice-daily insulin shots, and other ailments that required more than 10 medications a day, according to a transcript of the sentencing obtained by the AP.
Many records in case remain sealed, but prosecutors sought a longer prison term and noted that he misused some of his own relatives' identities to open 600 fraudulent credit accounts.
Nakoula apologized during the proceedings and his attorney James D. Henderson Sr. said Nakoula had learned his lesson.
'He's clearly gotten the message,' Henderson said. 'I can't imagine him doing anything stupider than what he did here, but what's done is done.'
Henderson said during the hearing that his client had been enlisted by another man to open the accounts and had only received $60,000 to $70,000 from the fraudulent transactions.
He got involved in the scheme after losing his job in the gas station industry and had been forced to work for a few dollars a weekend at swap meets to try to support his children and an ailing father, Henderson said, according to the transcript.
It could be difficult to establish a probation violation case against Nakoula. In the federal court system, the conditions of supervised release are geared toward the offense for which a defendant was found guilty and imprisoned.
In Nakoula's case, the offense was bank fraud. His no contest plea was to charges of setting up fraudulent bank accounts using stolen identities and Social Security numbers, depositing checks from those accounts into other phony accounts and then withdrawing the illicit funds from ATM machines.
While it was unclear what might have provoked authorities' interest, the filmmaker's use of a false identity and his access to the Internet through computers could be at issue, according to experts in cyber law and the federal probation system.
The probation order authorized in June 2010 warned Nakoula against using false identities. Nakoula was told not to 'use, for any purpose or in any manner, any name other than his/her true legal name or names without the prior written approval of the Probation Officer.'
Federal prosecutors had charged that Nakoula used multiple false identities in creating his fraudulent accounts. Several, Nicola Bacily and Erwin Salameh, were similar to the Sam Bacile pseudonym used to set up the YouTube account for the anti-Islamic film. Other pseudonyms used in the accounts ranged from Ahmed Hamdy to P.J. Tobacco.
Nakoula was also told he could not have any access to the Internet 'without the prior approval of the probation officer.' Nakoula was ordered to detail any online devices and cellphones to authorities and was told his devices would be monitored and subject to searches.
Jennifer Granick, a criminal defense lawyer who specializes in online crimes, said authorities might not have been aware of Nakoula's online activity even if monitoring devices were placed on his computers. 'That may be very hard for a probation officer to catch ahead of time.'
Granick also noted that Nakoula's conviction for financial crimes might provide a basis for probation officials to review bank and other monetary records. 'Somebody charged with a financial crime might receive some supervision categories where they might re-offend,' she said.
Nakoula was arrested in June 2009, pleaded no contest to the bank fraud charges a year later and was released from federal prison in June 2011 after serving a 21-month prison term, according to federal records.
An initial report about the federal probation review appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
There are indications that 'Innocence of Muslims' may have already been under way as a film project when Nakoula was arrested. A casting call for actors and crew for a film called 'Desert Warrior' ran in Backstage magazine, based in Los Angeles and New York, in May and June 2009. The casting call described the film project as a 'historical Arabian Desert adventure' and listed a 'Sam Bassiel' as producer.
One notice identified 'Pharaoh Voice Inc.' as the film's production company. California state records show Pharaoh Voice was incorporated in September 2007 by a 'Youssef M. Basseley'' The principal address for Pharaoh Voice in Hawaiian Gardens, a southern California community, is the same location where Nakoula lived until 2008, according to state records.
During an interview with AP, Nakoula denied that he was Sam Bacile, but acknowledged knowing him.

As interest in Nakoula intensifies, an actress who starred in his anti-Islamic film has said that she feels 'awful' about her role in the movie.
Declining to identify herself, the woman claimed that she was misled about her appearance in 'Innocence of Muslims' and was told it was a historical drama.
'I feel awful, and I didn't do anything. But I feel awful,' said the girl to CBS's Inside Edition.
'I was betrayed. I was Hilary, and the main character was George. I had no idea George turned into somebody else.'
An advertisement for actors to appear in the film was posted on trade magazine Backstage and filmmakers detailed the role of Hilary as '18 but looks much younger, petite, innocent.'
The same casting call wanted lead character George to be '20-40, a strong leader, romantic tyrant, a killer with no remorse, LEAD.'
That role was transformed from George to the Prophet Mohammed, who was portrayed as a child molesting warmonger in the controversial film.
Paid $671.66 for her time on the film, the emotional woman broke down in tears during her interview with Inside Edition.


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