Members of Missouri Organization Indicted for Aiding Terrorists

Four associates of a local Islamic charity and a fifth man in the Middle East have been charged that they illicitly sent money to Iraq and lied about an associate of Osama Bin Laden's who worked with the charity; they are charged in a 33-count indictment that alleges they stole government and public money and falsely represented their fundraising goals to the public.^[1]

''Today's indictment paints an alarming picture of theft, money laundering, and fraud by the U.S. branch of an international charitable organization………[t]hese charges demonstrate our resolve to thoroughly investigate and prosecute any charities that abuse their tax-exempt status to engage in wide-ranging criminal activity.'' Assistant Attorney General Kenneth L. Wainstein said.^[2]

While the charity has denied financing terrorism, and the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA, based in Columbia, Missouri, has continually tried to distinguish itself from the Islamic African Relief Agency, a federal court of appeals in Washington ruled last month that the two organizations were linked.^[3]

Four of the men are associated with the IARA in Columbia , the fifth is associated with Islamic African Relief Agency, a Sudanese group suspected of financing al-Qaida; Mubarak Hamed, 50, served as executive director of the agency; Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, a former board member; Ahmad Mustafa, 54, a former fundraiser; Khalid Al-Sudanee, 55, regional director of the Middle East office of the Islamic African Relief Agency; and Abdel Azim El-Siddiq, 50, former IARA vice president.^[4]

The men also are accused of lying about an associate of Osama Bin Laden not having been an employee of the IARA when, in fact, he was.^[5] Those allegations stem from a 2001 television interview in which ''a person acting on behalf of IARA'' lied about the organization's affiliation with Ziyad Khaleel, deceased, whom U.S. authorities allege helped obtain the satellite phones that al-Qaida used to coordinate the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.^[6]

The men are charged with, among other things, money laundering,^[7] conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iraqi Sanctions Resolutions,^[8] and theft of public money.

Theft of public money is covered by 18 U.S.C. § 641, which states that it is a crime for a person to steal or purloin money or any thing of value from the United States. The punishment for a violation of this statute is a fine, imprisonment for up to 10 years or both. Some cases have suggested that “it is an essential element of a violation of [section] 641 that the government suffer some actual property loss.”^[9] However, in recent years, that requirement seems to have been dropped. A number of courts have decided that “no one…has explained why Congress would have made property loss an element of a section 641 offense when, historically, there was no such element.”^[10] In short, in some circuits, “proof of the government’s loss is unnecessary in a section 641 prosecution.”^[11] However, since the matter is not completely settled, it is still an argument that should be made, even if it is difficult to do so.

We have previously discussed the crime of money laundering, here.

We have previously discussed the Missouri based IARA, here.

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^[1] Maria Sudekum Fisher, Mo. Indictment: 5 Sent Money to Iraq, AP (via the Guardian), March 8, 2007
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] 18 U.S.C. § 1956 (2007).
^[8] 18 U.S.C. § 371(2007).
^[9] See United States v. Evans, 572 F.2d 455, 471 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. Collins, 464 F.2d 1163, 1165 (9th Cir. 1972).
^[10] See United States v. Milton, 8 F.3d 39, 44 (D.C. Cir. 1993); United States v. Barnes, 761 F.2d 1026, 1032-36 (5th Cir. 1985).
^[11] Id.