US moves to seize four mosques linked to Iran

NEW YORK, 13 Nov 2009: Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four US mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a non-profit Muslim organisation long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.


In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in US history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than US$500mil (RM1.7bil) in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centres consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres (40ha) in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the US government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran’s UN Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered. Nor was a call to the Alavi Foundation.

It is extremely rare for US law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the US government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week’s Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.

The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear, but the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp, illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran’s state-owned Bank Melli.

Bank Melli has been accused by a US Treasury official of providing support for Iran’s nuclear programme, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.


The United States has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.

“For two decades, the Alavi Foundation’s affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centres and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques’ leaders had no immediate comment.

Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Centre of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Maryland. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two US marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.

The fourth Islamic centre marked for seizure is in Carmichael, California.

The New York skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.

The sleek, modern building, last valued at US$570mil to US$650mil in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned US$4.5mil from rents in 2007.

Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the United States. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centres, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.

The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in US-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran’s nuclear programme and its arrest of three American hikers.

But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.

“Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations,” Rubin said. “It’s taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It’s not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy.”

Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in US history in which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.

The Alavi Foundation is the successor organisation to the Pahlavi Foundation, a non-profit group used by the Shah to advance Iran’s charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the Shah.

In 2007, the United States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed sanctions against various other Iranian businesses. -- AP