KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A federal grand
jury in the Western District of Missouri has returned a superseding
indictment that charges the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) and
several of its former officers with eight new counts of engaging in
prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of U.S.-designated
terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The indictment also charges former U.S.
Congressman Mark Deli Siljander with money laundering, conspiracy and
obstruction of justice in the case.
The 42-count superseding indictment returned today was announced by
Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security;
John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Joseph
Billy, Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division; and Monte
C. Strait, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Kansas City Field Office.
"This superseding indictment paints a troubling picture of an American
charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of
terrorists and conspired with a former United States Congressman to convert
stolen federal funds into payment for his advocacy on behalf of the
charity," said Assistant Attorney General Wainstein.
"An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent
funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global
terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban," said U.S. Attorney Wood.
"By bringing this case in the middle of America, we seek to make it harder
for terrorists to do business halfway around the globe. The indictment also
alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and
obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARA's
misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian
purposes."
IARA, the Islamic charitable organization named in today's indictment,
was headquartered in Columbia, Mo., and was formerly known as the Islamic
African Relief Agency-USA. IARA was officially formed in 1985 and closed in
October 2004, when it was identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a
specially designated global terrorist organization. Mubarak Hamed, 51, of
Columbia, Mo., a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sudan, served as IARA's
former executive director and is named as a defendant in the indictment.
Also charged in today's superseding indictment is Mark Deli Siljander,
57, a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan (1981-87) who serves as the
owner/director of Global Strategies, Inc., a planning, marketing and public
relations company located in the Washington, D.C. area.
Other defendants named in the indictment are Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53,
formerly of Columbia, Mo, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Libya and a
former member of IARA's board of directors; Ahmad Mustafa, 55, of Columbia,
a citizen of Iraq, and a former fund-raiser for IARA; Khalid Al-Sudanee,
56, a citizen and resident of Jordan, and the regional director of the
Middle East office of the Islamic African Relief Agency (also known as the
Islamic Relief Agency, or ISRA); and Abdel Azim El-Siddig, 51, of Palos
Heights, Ill., a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Sudan, and formerly vice
president for international operations for IARA.
On March 6, 2007, IARA, along with five officers, employees and
associates were charged in a 33-count indictment for illegally transferring
funds to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions. They were also charged
with stealing government funds, with misusing IARA's charitable status to
raise funds for an unlawful purpose, and with attempting to avoid
government detection of their illegal activities by, among other things,
falsely denying in a nationally-televised interview that a procurement
agent of Osama bin Laden had been an employee of IARA. These charges are
included in the superseding indictment returned today.
New Terrorism-Related Charges Against IARA
Today's superseding indictment adds to the original charges by alleging
that IARA and its former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, engaged in
prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of Specially Designated
Global Terrorist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen leader and
founder of the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin (HIG), who has participated in and
supported terrorist acts by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Hekmatyar has vowed
to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops
in Afghanistan. The U.S. government designated Hekmatyar as a Specially
Designated Global Terrorist on Feb. 19, 2003, thereby blocking all property
and interests in property of Hekmatyar.
According to Counts Thirty-Four through Forty-One of the new
indictment, IARA and Hamed knowingly and willfully engaged in financial
transactions for the benefit of Hekmatyar's organization by sending
approximately $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 in numerous transactions to Islamic
Relief Agency (ISRA) bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, purportedly for
an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar.
"Sending money to benefit designated terrorists jeopardizes both U.S.
national security and the security of nations around the world," said
Assistant Director Joseph Billy, Jr., FBI Counterterrorism Division. "The
FBI will continue to work diligently with our partners in the law
enforcement and intelligence community to pursue suspected terrorists and
their supporters, whether in the United States or overseas."
It is important to note that the indictment does not charge any of the
defendants with material support of terrorism, nor does it allege that they
knowingly financed acts of terror. Instead, the indictment alleges that
some of the defendants engaged in financial transactions that benefited
property controlled by a designated terrorist, in violation of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
New Charges Against Former Congressman
Today's superseding indictment also names Mark Deli Siljander as a
defendant on counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of
justice. According to the indictment, Siljander was hired in March 2004 by
defendants IARA, Hamed, and Bagegni to advocate for the removal of IARA
from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations
suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism.
The Senate Finance Committee placed IARA on this list of charities and
published the list on Jan. 14, 2004. Siljander was to advocate for IARA's
removal from the list and reinstatement as an approved government
contractor by gathering information and meeting with individuals and
agencies of the U.S. government.
As compensation for the services that Siljander agreed to perform, IARA
transferred roughly $50,000 in stolen federal funds to accounts that were
controlled by Siljander at the National Heritage Foundation and the
International Foundation. According to the indictment, the funds used to
compensate Siljander for his services had previously been stolen from the
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by IARA, Hamed and
Bagegni. The International Foundation and the National Heritage Foundation,
which is not related to the Heritage Foundation, are not charged with any
wrongdoing in this case.
IARA, Hamed and Bagegni had previously entered into a series of
agreements with USAID for relief projects in Mali, Africa. When USAID
terminated those agreements in December 1999, the amount of money involved
totaled approximately $2 million. IARA had allegedly failed to fully fund
the matching contributions required to receive USAID funds. After the
termination of these agreements, the indictment alleges, IARA, Hamed and
Bagegni, without authorization, retained approximately $84,922 of USAID
money and failed to return the funds to USAID as called for by the
agreements.
According to Count Twenty-Eight of the indictment, Siljander and
defendants IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig conspired to engage in money
laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers
were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds.
Counts Twenty-Nine through Thirty-One of the indictment charge Siljander
along with IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig with engaging in money
laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers
were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds.
Obstruction of Justice
Count Thirty-Two of the indictment alleges that Siljander obstructed
the due administration of justice in the grand jury investigation in the
Western District of Missouri by making false statements to FBI agents in
December 2005 and to FBI agents and federal prosecutors in April 2007.
According to the indictment, Siljander told federal officials that he
had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy work for IARA and that
the money or checks he received from IARA were charitable "donations"
intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between
Islam and Christianity. When he made these statements, he then well knew
and believed that each statement was false, the indictment alleges.
The public is cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment
are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the
charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to
determine guilt or innocence. The defendants are presumed innocent unless
and until proven guilty.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security's U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. AID-Office of Inspector
General.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P.
Gonzalez from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of
Missouri, in conjunction with Trial Attorneys Corey J. Smith, National
Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Steven M.
Mohlhenrich, Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
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http://www.USDOJ.gov
CONTACT:
U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public
Affairs, +1-202-514-2007, or TDD, +1-202-514-1888
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