Palos Heights man accused of illegally sending money to Iraq

March 8, 2007
By Maria Sudekum Fisher The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Four associates of a Missouri-based Islamic charity and a fifth man in the Middle East were indicted on charges they illegally sent money to Iraq, the U.S. attorney's office announced Wednesday.

The five men are charged in a 33-count indictment that alleges they stole government and public money and falsely represented their fundraising goals to the public. Four are associated with the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA, based in Columbia, Mo. The fifth is associated with Islamic African Relief Agency, a Sudanese group suspected of financing al-Qaida.

Among those charged is Abdel Azim El-Siddiq, 50, of Palos Heights, a former agency vice president.

The federal government alleges the American agency evolved from the African agency, a claim the charity has denied.

A federal grand jury returned the indictment Tuesday charging the men with illegally transferring $1.4 million to Iraq between March 1991 and May 2003, a period when Iraq was under various sanctions by the United States and United Nations.

The indictment does not say how the money was spent, but it alleges the money transfers violated the sanctions, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Bradley J. Schlozman.

Federal agents raided the group's headquarters in 2004 as part of a criminal investigation, and the charity's assets were later frozen.

Shereef Akeel, a Michigan lawyer representing the charity, said the group denies any wrongdoing or involvement in terrorism. The charges are serious, but they have a different tone from two years ago, when the group was accused of being a terrorist organization, Akeel said.

''Now we're talking tax code violations and the Sanctions Act,'' he said. ''Maybe that's Plan B. Plan A they couldn't find anything.''

The other men indicted were identified as Mubarak Hamed, 50, of Columbia, executive director of the agency; Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, of Iowa City, Iowa, a former board member; Ahmad Mustafa, 54, of Columbia, a former fundraiser; and Khalid Al-Sudanee, 55, of Jordan, the regional director of the Middle East office for the Islamic African Relief Agency.

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