Man says he didn't try to fund terrorism

A businessman accused of trying to funnel money to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan told a judge his dealings with an undercover operative were to enrich himself, not to help the enemy.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 54, of Ardsley, is charged with accepting an unspecified amount of money to transfer $152,000 that he believed was being sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan to support the camp.

He has pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to charges of terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and money laundering. The charges carried a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.

Recordings secretly made by federal agents show that Alishtari "was interested more in the profit potential of the undercover's supposed money backers and himself than he was to their 'cause,'" his lawyers wrote in a letter this week to the judge.

Alishtari was hoping the undercover agent, who passed himself off as a wealthy Middle Easterner, would invest in Flat Electronic Data Interchange, a loan investment program he was running. Federal prosecutors have called it a fraud.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the case Friday.

Alishtari, also known as Michael Mixon, also asked the judge to release him from a segregated unit of a Manhattan jail into the jail's general population. He was arrested in February 2007. Alishtari's lawyers said the strict confinement represents "unduly harsh treatment of a pretrial detainee" and has hampered his ability to prepare his defense.

Alishtari donated $15,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee between April 2002 and August 2004. An NRCC spokeswoman has said the committee will donate the money to charity if Alishtari is convicted.