Grand jury indicts defunct charity
Published Jan. 16, 2008
A Kansas City grand jury returned a 42-count indictment today that accuses a now-defunct Columbia charity of eight new counts of engaging in prohibited financial transactions with a U.S. designated terrorist organization.
The charity, Islamic American Relief Agency, and five officers, employees and associates were indicted for transferring funds to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions and several other offenses, according to a United States Department of Justice news release.
IARA and its former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, are accused in the March indictment of sending about $130,000 to Islamic Relief Agency bank accounts in 2003 and 2004.
Former Republican Congressman Mark Deli Siljander, of Michigan, was also named in the indictment on counts of money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.