Court filings: US and Russia share notes on defunct Oregon charity

US, Russia share notes on defunct Oregon charity

PORTLAND, Ore. — Recent court filings in a criminal case against the operator of a defunct Oregon charity reveal that federal prosecutors traveled to Russia in an attempt to find proof that the organization had been involved in terrorism.

In December, federal prosecutors Charles Gorder and Chris Cardani met with agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service and gave them copies of computer hard drives from Al Haramain Islamic Foundation Inc., the Oregonian newspaper reported. The Federal Security Service was looking for information about Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya.

Pete Seda, who founded the Ashland charity 10 years ago, is charged with conspiracy and tax fraud, accused of diverting money overseas for foreign Islamic fighters.

His attorneys say prosecutors had no business giving the Russians the data. They argued in court records that the move was an “outrageous intrusion” into Seda’s privacy and asked a judge to bar the government from using the computers as evidence.

Gorder and Cardani, assistant U.S. attorneys, said in the new filings that the arrangement was legal under international treaty. They said they brought home evidence that Al Haramain wasn’t the humanitarian organization it claimed to be.

A judge has yet to rule on the competing claims. The prosecutors declined to comment on recent events, as did Seda’s lawyers, federal defender Steve Wax and Portland attorney Larry Matasar.

Seda, 51, and three Saudis formed Al Haramain as the American arm of huge Saudi Islamic charity. Al Haramain distributed religious material to U.S. prisons and operated a prayer house before falling under suspicion of federal terrorism investigators.

Seda went overseas after a visit from the FBI in 2003. The following year, federal authorities designated Al Haramain a supporter of terrorism. Prosecutors subsequently charged Seda with illegally using a $150,000 donation to support mujahedeen, the Islamic fighters.

Seda, a one-time arborist born in Iran as Pirouz Sedaghaty, returned to Oregon in 2007 to deny tax and conspiracy charges. He has consistently maintained he opposed terrorist acts and worked instead to promote interfaith peace.

He was freed pending his trial, which was set for next month but has been postponed, in part because Seda wants time to consider the new Russian information.

Information from: The Oregonian, www.oregonlive.com