Man pleads guilty to murder-for-hire attempt on business rival in Broward

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A South Florida man arrested in March after authorities accused him of paying a purported hitman in a murder-for-hire attempt against a business rival pleaded guilty on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Makram Khashman, 58, of Boynton Beach, pleaded guilty to one count of murder-for-hire in Fort Lauderdale federal court, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He could spend up to a decade in prison.

Authorities said Khashman, who worked in the produce industry, thought a Leap Day meetup in Plantation was with an assassin willing to take $5,000 to kill a business rival at a warehouse in Parkland.

Instead, they said it was with a covert agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

An ATF confidential informant had connected the pair after Khashman approached the informant to ask about carrying out a murder in exchange for money.

During the Feb. 29 meetup, in the area of 120 S. Pine Island Road, authorities said Khashman told the undercover agent that “he was in the streets with his family, that (the intended victim) had taken over a million dollars and a business worth three million dollars from (him).”

Court documents state that Khashman told the agent he “didn’t give a f—” how he killed the victim and said he wanted the victim “gone.”

The pair agreed to a $5,000 price and Khashman and the undercover agent met again in Plantation on March 19, where Khashman gave the agent a $2,500 down payment for the job.

Prosecutors said that after the agent confirmed with Khashman that he “wanted the victim dead,” Khashman replied, succinctly, “No s—.”

He said that the victim “ruined his life and that he was willing to ‘do it myself’ and ‘didn’t give a f—,’” a criminal complaint states.

The pair, authorities said, discussed a final meeting where Khashman would pay the other $2,500 after being provided with “photographic proof of the crime.”

They would then part ways and Khashman would be arrested a week later.

Prosecutors said Khashman is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 7.