Charity and associates indicted on 33 counts
Charges include transferring more than $1.3 million to Iraq.
March 9, 2007
A defunct Columbia charity and five officials and employees were indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges of violating federal sanctions by transferring funds to Iraq, stealing government funds and attempting to prevent the government from detecting their activities, according to U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman.
The Islamic American Relief Agency closed in October 2004 when the U.S. Department of the Treasury accused the organization of sponsoring terrorist activities. Officers from 11 agencies raided the charity's headquarters and seized computers, documents and filing cabinets. Since then, the agency's assets have been frozen by the Treasury Department.
The indictment was returned Tuesday but unsealed on Wednesday and made public in a news conference.
Schlozman said in a press conference that the organization's executive director, Mubarak Hamed, 50, was dispatched to the U.S. in 1990 by the head of the Islamic African Relief Agency, an organization based in Sudan. The organization has been linked to al-Qaida by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, but the Columbia organization has denied any affiliation with the group since its funds were frozen.
In addition to Hamed and the charity itself, the grand jury also indicted Ali Bagegni, Ahmad Mustafa, Khalid Al-Sudanee and Abdel El-Siddiq. Bagegni, 53, was a member of the organization's board of directors, Schlozman said. Mustafa, 54, was a fundraiser for the organization. Al-Sudanee is the director of the Islamic Relief Agency in Amman, Jordan.
Schlozman said the Islamic Relief Agency and the Islamic African Relief Agency are different branches of the same organization. The Islamic American Relief Agency is being investigated for links to these organizations.
Hamed and Mustafa, of Columbia, and Bagegni, of Iowa City, Iowa, were arrested Wednesday morning. They had their initial court appearance and were released on bond, said Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Kansas City. He said El-Siddiq was arrested Wednesday night, but he did not know if he had appeared in court.
Ledford said Al-Sudanee is in Jordan and had not been taken into custody.
"We're in discussion with the government of Jordan for extradition," he said.
Ledford said he could not offer an estimate for when Al-Sudanee would be in U.S. custody.
Shereef Akeel, the Islamic American Relief Agency's attorney, said he was disappointed in the indictment.
"The tone of these allegations has changed," he said. "What we have from the indictment is tax code violations. They're very, very serious allegations, but they're substantially different."
The indictment makes 33 separate charges against the Islamic American Relief Agency and its five associates.
In a previous Maneater report, Akeel said the Columbia organization had worked with the African organization in the past but only temporarily and in charitable functions. He said UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders worked with the organization in Sudan as well.
The Columbia organization, Hamed, Bagegni and Mustafa were charged in the indictment with transferring more than $1.3 million to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions.
Another three counts charge the organization, Hamed and Bagegni with stealing federal program funds by entering a series of agreements with the U.S. Agency for International Development and then violating the terms of those agreements.
The organization, Hamed, Bagegni and Al-Siddiq were charged with one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering and three counts of money laundering.
The indictment also accuses the organization and Hamed of attempting to obstruct the administration of the administration of federal tax laws.
The final count demands that the defendants forfeit more than $1.3 million, the amount allegedly transferred illegally to Iraq, to the federal government. It also demands that the organization, Hamed and Al-Siddiq surrender $46,350, the amount of money they are charged with laundering.
Evidence in the case will be presented to a federal trial jury to determine innocence or guilt. Ledford said none of the suspects had yet been arraigned, so no one had entered a plea.
Akeel said he has been representing the organization itself, but other attorneys will join the case to assist in the criminal charges. The individuals cited in the indictment will have independent representation.
On Feb. 13, 2007, a Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the charity's request to have its funds released. In the court's written opinion, Circuit Judge David Sentelle stated the funds could not be released because the evidence against the charity was too compelling.
Akeel said freezing the organization's funds "substantially crippled" the ability to engage in charitable work.
"All this was done in the name of the war on terror, but we have undermined our war on famine," he said.
Akeel said the funds should be released under government supervision so the money would go where donors intended, rather than being forfeited to the government.
"That money should go to help people in need, not to the government," he said. "We're going to fight to make sure that happens."
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