SHANE HOOVER
Observer-Dispatch

A doctor with a practice in Rome is one of four men charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Syracuse with funneling $4 million to Iraq over the past nine years.

Federal prosecutors Wednesday charged Dr. Rafil Dhafir, 55, of Fayetteville, who also practices in Rome, and Maher Zagha, 34, of Amman, Jordan, with conspiring to transfer money to Iraq in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. They also are charged with 12 counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering through the Help the Needy and Help the Needy Endowment charities.

Two other men, Ayman Jarwan, 33, of Syracuse, and Osameh Al Wahaidy, 41, of Fayetteville, are charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Dhafir runs the Rome Oncology Center on Black River Boulevard.

Rome Memorial Hospital President Darlene Burns said Dhafir has been a respected member of hospital's medical staff since 1982.

"We are saddened to learn of this situation," she said

"The hospital will take proper action pending the results of the judicial proceedings," she said. "If he is convicted of a felony, the state would revoke his medical license at which time he would lose his hospital privileges."

Burns said Wednesday was the first she had ever heard of Help the Needy, and that she was not aware of Dhafir soliciting funds for it at the hospital.

"The hospital primarily provided outpatient diagnostic and treatment services for Dr. Dhafir's patients," Burns said. "If his patients were hospitalized, he interacted with our staff to coordinate their care."

Dhafir has been licensed to practice medicine in New York since 1980, according to his posting on www.nydoctorprofile.com, a Web site developed by the state Health Department. A 1971 graduate of the University of Baghdad College of Medicine, Dhafir completed his studies in oncology at the University of Michigan in 1978.

Dhafir is the only defendant who is a U.S. citizen. The other men are Jordanian citizens.

According to the Treasury Department's "Iraqi Sanctions Regulations," developed under the act in 1990, individuals and organizations are prohibited from transferring funds or other financial or economic resources to the Iraqi government or any person in Iraq without a license from the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

A similar policy governs transfers to countries such as Burma, Cuba, Iran, Liberia, Libya, North Korea, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

But according to the indictment, that's just what Dhafir and his associates did through Help the Needy.

Starting with the organization of the charity around 1994, prosectors said the defendants opened an account at Oneida Savings Bank and began making deposits in the charity's name. Prosecutors said money from that account was then moved to an account in the name of Maher Zagha at Fleet Bank, and in turn shuttled to an account held by Zagha at Jordan Islamic Bank in Amman, Jordan. From Zagha's Jordanian account, the money was transferred across the border to individuals in Iraq.

Up until 1999, $1 million reportedly was transferred this way, prosecutors said. After the closure of the Fleet Bank account that year, the defendants allegedly transferred $2.7 million directly from Oneida Savings and Key Bank to Jordan Islamic Bank by writing checks payable to Zagha Trading Establishment.

Prosecutors said the defendants made false and misleading representations concerning the intended use of the money when soliciting donations, applying for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service and used false personal information when opening bank accounts.

If convicted, the Dhafir and Zagha face a maximum of 265 years in prison and fines of $14.2 million.

The indictment is the culmination of a three-year investigation by the FBI, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the state police, the U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Postal Service, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Marshals Service.