The 36-storey skyscraper in New York, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s on Manhattan's posh Fifth Avenue
U.S. Marshals post a copy of the federal government's demands last night on the door of a school in the New York borough of Queens borough. The school is among the assets listed by U.S. prosecutors
last night as the government took steps to seize it as part of the operation
The entrance to the Piaget skyscraper in New York yesterday. As part of its claim the U.S. government wants to seize the building
Another view of the Razi school in the Queens borough of New York last night
U.S. Federal authorities have moved to seize this Islamic Education Centre - a primary school and mosque - in Houston
Four mosques and a Manhattan skyscraper owned by a Muslim organisation are suspected by U.S. prosecutors of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.
Prosecutors filed a civil complaint yesterday in federal court against the Alavi Foundation in an attempt to take control of more than $500million in assets.
The move may be one of the biggest counter-terrorism seizures in American history.
The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centres consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres of land in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.
The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the case is tangled up in the courts. It is expected to be a long legal process.
What will happen to them if the government wins is unclear. The U.S. government usually sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.
Prosecutors claim the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government.
Working with a front company known as Assa Corp., the Foundation illegally funnelled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli, they claim.
Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. It is illegal in the U.S. to do business with the bank.
The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government. A 97-page complaint includes details of the involvement of several top Iranian officials in the Foundation's business - including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.
The skyscraper in New York, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s on Manhattan's posh Fifth Avenue under the shah of Iran. The shah was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Tenants of the skyscraper include law and investment firms, among other businesses.
The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570million to $650million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years.
The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5million from rents in 2007.
Rents collected from the building help fund the Islamic centres and other ventures, such as sending educational books and other literature to jailed Muslims in the U.S.
The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.
If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centres, which house schools and mosques.
That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.
'For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws,' U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran's U.N. Mission has not yet commented on the case.
So far no British link has emerged in the operation.
The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a non-profit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America.
But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah in 1979.
There were no raids yesterday as part of the forfeiture action. All the government had to do was post notices of the civil complaint on the property.
John D. Winter, the Alavi Foundation's lawyer, said it intends to fight back against the move.
He said the foundation has been co-operating with the government's investigation for the better part of a year.
'Obviously the foundation is disappointed that the government has decided to bring this action,' Mr Winter said.
It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship. To do so immediately raises questions about the constitutional right to freedom of religion.
The move is also expected to inflame tensions between the U.S. government and American Muslims.
Many Muslims in the U.S. are already fearful of a backlash after last week's shooting rampage at Fort Hood military base, blamed on a Muslim American major.
'Whatever the details of the government's case against the owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide,' said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
'No action has been taken against any tenants or occupants of those properties,' U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Yusill Scribner said.
'The tenants and occupants remain free to use the properties as they have before today's filing. There are no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants.'
As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centres and the schools they run carried on as normal yesterday. The mosques' leaders would not comment on the case and accusations.
Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Maryland.
No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late last night.
At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in the city's Queens borough, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly.
When there was no answer, the marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.
The fourth Islamic centre marked for seizure is in Carmichael, California.
The operation comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear programme and its arrest of three American hikers.
But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably just a coincidence.
'Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations,' Mr Rubin said.
'It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy.'
Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which authorities have seized a house of worship.
Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.
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