Fort Bend County scandal: Petition alleges businessman involved in Taral Patel online hoax
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - A recent petition filed in Harris County by a Pakistani-American businessman alleges other individuals were possibly involved in the social media hoax connected to Fort Bend Precinct 3 Commissioner candidate Taral Patel.
Muhammad Javed, a businessman and philanthropist, filed the document where it is stated he had a rivalry with another Pakistani-American businessman, Tanweer Ahmed. Javed and Ahmed's working relationship was strained in 2023 and Javed's consideration for being appointed as minister was the last straw for Ahmed who "plotted a smear campaign against Javed."
Javed's son, Abrahim Javed, began his campaign for Fort Bend Commissioner, Precinct 3, going against Taral Patel.
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With Patel and Ahmed having the Javed family as a "common enemy", the document claimed, the two schemed to smear the family's name.
According to the petition, they would pay to have defamatory online articles published on pay to play "news" sites and Patel would his Facebook aliases to link the articles while Ahmed would interact or report them to gather the attention of a larger audience. The record mentions Ahmed would pay $5,000 to Patel for "campaign contribution."
On "pay to publish" websites, people can pay to have any article published which is then reported on various other sites to increase the article being seen in search engines. The sites imitate legitimate news sites so people online believe its from a trusted source.
Patel would use his "Amntonio Scalywag" fake profile to link the stories and Ahmed would make comments, the petition read. The document had several screenshots from these posts. In one post made by "Scalywag" with a link to an article, Ahmed commented, "Thank you for sharing this article. Only pathetic people can get their checks returned unpaid linked Muhammad Tahir Javed…". In another comment on a linked post from "Sclaywag", Ahmed said, "This is an eye-opening for all residents not to allow criminals and sick minded people in your country to rule you."
In early September, Patel was indicted on four felony counts for charges related to impersonating people online to threaten others.