Donor, Citing Fraud, Sues Imam Tied to Mosque near Ground Zero

By Sharon Otterman
The New York Times
February 5, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/nyregion/donor-sues-imam-tied-to-mosque-near-ground-zero.html?_r=1&

Daisy Khan, co-founder of the Cordoba Initiative, is noted in a $20 million lawsuit alleging her husband, imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, pilfered $3 million from two nonprofits — including her own

The imam and former spiritual leader of an Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero is accused in a new lawsuit of defrauding donors to his nonprofit organizations of millions of dollars, using the money for personal real estate, lavish trips and a luxury sports car.

he suit against the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, was filed on Monday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan by Robert Leslie Deak, a major donor to the imam’s nonprofit organizations, the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement.

Mr. Deak said in the suit that he donated $167,000 between 2006 and 2008 to a project to combat anti-Muslim sentiment. Instead, the suit alleges, Mr. Abdul Rauf used the money for entertainment and other personal purposes.

The lawsuit also accuses the organizations of not reporting on their tax returns approximately $3 million that the Malaysian government donated to the two organizations. Instead, according to the suit, that money was also taken by Mr. Abdul Rauf for his personal use.

Jonathan Nelson, the lawyer for Mr. Deak and his wife, Moshira Solimon, said that his clients first began to suspect in 2010 that fraud had taken place, and that they had “gathered the information in bits and pieces” by April 2011. The couple are asking for $5 million in punitive damages.

“They are just incredibly disappointed and shocked,” Mr. Nelson said.

In a statement, Mr. Abdul Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan, an officer at the two organizations, said that they “emphatically deny the allegations contained in that lawsuit.”

“The lawsuit is meritless and it will be vigorously defended in the New York court,” the statement said.

The couple noted that the Cordoba Initiative is already suing Mr. Deak and Ms. Solimon for $1.5 million in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, accusing them of fraud and breach of trust. That lawsuit accuses them of knowingly inflating the value of a condominium in Washington that they sold to the Cordoba Initiative in 2010, and then failing to transfer the title.

In 2010, Mr. Abdul Rauf was the public face of the Islamic center in Lower Manhattan that was to be built several blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attack. He left the project in January 2011, amid tensions with its co-founder, the real estate developer Sharif El-Gamal, who owned the former coat store at 51 Park Place where the 13-story center was planned.

The imam’s two nonprofit organizations are dedicated to educating the public about Islam and improving relationships between Muslims and people of other faiths. Mr. Abdul Rauf has been sent on speaking tours of the Middle East sponsored by the State Department.

Mr. Deak is the president of Bittachon Holdings. According to a recent biography posted by the Center for a New American Security, where he serves as an adviser, he is also active in improving relations among the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities.