“Man held in New York on terror funding charges,” from AFP:
NEW YORK (AFP) – US authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of transferring funds abroad to finance training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a New York district attorney said.
US resident Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, whose nationality is not known, is accused of having agreed to transfer 152,000 dollars abroad supposedly to buy night vision glasses for a camp in Afghanistan.
Also known by the alias Michael Mixon, he was arrested on Thursday and was to be charged with attempting to finance terrorism, international money laundering, and material support to terrorism, as well as conspiracy and wire fraud.
According to the US Attorney for the southern district of New York, Michael Garcia, Alishtari was also behind a six-year scam from 1998 to 2004 when he stole millions of dollars from victims via a phoney loan investment program.
It would be interesting to find out where that money went, as well.
He faces up to 95 years in prison if convicted of the charges, Garcia added.