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Former congressman indicted on money laundering charges for charity linked to terrorism |
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By Klaus Marre
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Posted: 01/16/08 05:32 PM [ET] |
Former Michigan Rep. Mark Deli Siljander (R), who served in Congress in the 1980s, was indicted Wednesday on money laundering charges in connection with an Islamic charity group accused of funneling money to terrorists.
“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 John Wood, who added that the indictment “also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise [the Islamic American Relief Agency’s (IARA)] misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes.”
IARA was closed in 2004 after the Treasury Department identified it as a “specially designated global terrorist organization,” according to a Department of Justice (DoJ) statement.
The indictment charges that the group “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,” DoJ stated.
The department stressed that the indictment does not charge any of the named defendants “with material support of terrorism, nor does it allege that they knowingly financed acts of terror.”
Instead, the indictment says that some individuals associated with the group violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by engaging in “financial transactions that benefited property controlled by a designated terrorist.”
Siljander is involved in the case because he was hired by the IARA to lobby for the removal of the group from a Senate Finance Committee list of nonprofit organizations suspected of aiding terrorism.
“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,” DoJ said when it presented the case to the public.
According to the indictment, Siljander and others “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.”
In addition, the indictment charges that the former lawmaker sought to obstruct justice by making false statements to FBI agents and federal prosecutors.
“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,” DoJ stated. “When he made these statements, he then well knew and believed that each statement was false,” the indictment alleges. |
