Agus Budiman is an Indonesian who was arrested in November 2001 in Virginia on charges of document fraud. He came to the United States from Hamburg in October 2000, with Mohammed bin Naser Belfas. Budiman assisted Belfas in obtaining a Virginia driver's license. Budiman worked in the Washington area as a delivery driver for Takeout Taxi. Budiman was in the United States on a visitor's visa, which he overstayed. Also, one is not permitted to work while in the U.S. on a visitor's visa.[1]
Budiman was suspected as part of the Hamburg cell, having ties to Mohamed Atta and other 9/11 hijackers.[2] From 1992 to 2000, Budiman was an architecture student in Hamburg. Like Atta, Budiman also attended Al Quds Mosque in Hamburg.[3]
During a court hearing at the end of November 2001, FBI agent Jesus Gomez testified that "Budiman helped Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh move into a Hamburg apartment that sources say may have been used as a safe house by the Sept. 11 plotters. And Binalshibh used Budiman's American address on application forms during his unsuccessful efforts to get a U.S. visa."[4] Ziad Jarrah also had help, using Budiman's address on his visa application, to help get into the United States.[5]
"According to an FBI affidavit, Belfas, who sometimes accompanied Budiman on his food delivery runs, wanted a Virginia driver's license. So Budiman helped him exploit a now-closed loophole in Virginia law by signing a notarized affidavit that falsely stated that both of them lived in a Pentagon City apartment complex. Belfas used the document to obtain a Virginia state identification card and driver's license."[6]