Former Head of Missouri Charity Pleads Guilty to Violating Sanctions Against Iraq

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On June 30, 2010 the former director of a Missouri-based charity plead guilty to conspiring to transfer money to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions. Mubarak Hamed admitted to illegally transferring more than $1 million money to Iraq from 1999 to 2002. He had been the Executive Director of the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) in Columbia, Missouri. IARA had been shut down after being designated a terrorist entity by the Department of Treasury on Oct. 13, 2004. Sentencing has not been scheduled, but Hamed faces up to 20 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. The charity and other defendants are still awaiting trial. 

Hamed is the third defendant to plead guilty in the case. In Dec. 2009, charity fundraiser Ahmad Mustafa pleaded guilty to illegally transferring money to Iraq and former IARA board member, Ali Mohamed Begegni, pleaded guilty to a role in the conspiracy on April 6. It is unclear from media reports if the charity is represented by counsel during these proceedings.
 
Two defendants are still waiting for their trials to begin, including former U.S. congressman Mark Siljander (R-MI). According to prosecutors, Siljander is accused of taking $75,000 from a U.S. Agency for International Development grant that IARA was supposed to have used for relief projects in Mali. Prosecutors said the money was to help remove the charity’s name from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of organizations that allegedly supported terrorism.