Federal authorities have indicted a 44-year-old Long Island man for allegedly operating an unlicensed money transfer business between the United States and Pakistan, officials announced Wednesday. Mohammad Younis is accused of helping arrange transfers that aided the May 1 attempted car bombing in New York's Times Square.

Prosecutors say that Younis helped operate a money-transfer service known as a "hawala" since January. On April 10, he engaged in two separate hawala transactions with customers who traveled from Connecticut and New Jersey to meet him in Long Island.

"In each of the transactions, Younis provided thousands of dollars in cash to the individuals at the direction of a co-conspirator in Pakistan, but without knowledge of how the customers were planning to use the funds," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

One of those who received money from Younis was Faisal Shahzad, who in June pled guilty to a 10-count indictment charging him with various crimes in connection with his attempt to bomb Times Square.

Shahzad admitted receiving an April 2010 cash payment in the United States in to finance his preparations for the May 1 attack. He has said the April cash payment was arranged in Pakistan by associates of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an organization that has claimed credit for the Times Square bombing attempt.

Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint earlier this month against TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud in connection with the December 30, 2009 suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees in Khost, Afghanistan. Following that attack, the TTP released a video of Mehsud and the suicide bomber, Humam Khali Abu Mulal al-Balawi, discussing an attack against Americans.