bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

The United States is set to seize control of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper after a judge ruled that it is secretly owned by Iran, the justice department said, though the ruling is to be appealed.
The seizure and sale of the 36-storey building, in the heart of New York at 650 Fifth Avenue, would be "the largest-ever terrorism-related forfeiture," the department's statement added.
A federal judge ruled in favour of the government's suit last week, saying the building's owners had violated Iran sanctions and money laundering laws.
Manhattan Federal Prosecutor Preet Bharara said the decision upholds the justice department claims the owner of the building "was (and is) a front for Bank Melli, and thus a front for the Government of Iran".
Bharara said the funds from selling the building would provide "a means of compensating victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism".
The building generated close to US$39 million in rental income from 1999 through to 2007, according to the lawsuit.
Prosecutors allege the building's owners, the Alavi Foundation and Assa Corporation, transferred rental income and other funds to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Alavi also ran a charitable organisation for Iran and managed the building for the Iranian government, the statement said.
Built in the 1970s by a non-profit organisation operated by the Shah of Iran - and financed with a Bank Melli loan - the building was expropriated by the Iranian government after the 1979 revolution, prosecutors say.
They claimed the Shah's non-profit organisation, the Pahlavi Foundation, was renamed the Mostazafan Foundation of New York and then the Alavi Foundation. A former president of the Alavi foundation pleaded guilty in 2009 to obstructing justice in destroying evidence related to the case, first filed in 2008.
The Alavi foundation said it planned to appeal, saying in a statement on its website it was "disappointed" with the ruling and that "it did not have the opportunity to rebut the Government evidence before a jury".
US District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled last week that the Alavi Foundation must have known that Assa was a front for Bank Melli.
Forrest dismissed the notion that since 1995, when US sanctions took effect, Alavi might not have known that Iran controlled Assa, as Alavi had argued.
"No rational juror could believe in such extraordinary amnesia," Forrest wrote.
"Many of the same Alavi board members who were indisputably involved in the creation of Assa as a front for Bank Melli in 1989 remained" with Alavi after the sanctions took effect, she wrote.
The ruling does not include seven other properties that are in Alavi's name only.
The US Treasury Department has instituted tight sanctions against Iran, blacklisting several Iranian companies and organisations and putting tight controls on the ability of any group or business to transfer funds into Iran.
The restrictions seek to pressure Tehran into giving up what the West says is a programme to develop nuclear weapons.
Additional reporting by Reuters


New York tower 'secretly owned' by Iran is seized

The 36-storey building at 650 Fifth Avenue, New York.

News

World

Judge rules owners violated sanctions in what is set to be the 'largest terrorism-related forfeiture'


The United States is set to seize control of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper after a judge ruled that it is secretly owned by Iran, the justice department said, though the ruling is to be appealed.


New York tower 'secretly owned' by Iran is seized

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Judge rules owners violated sanctions in what is set to be the 'largest terrorism-related forfeiture'

Judge rules owners violated sanctions in what is set to be the 'largest terrorism-related forfeiture'