United States v. Pirouz Sedaghaty

Opinion by Judge McKEOWN; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge TALLMAN.

OPINION

McKEOWN, Circuit Judge:

This is a tax fraud case that was transformed into a trial on terrorism. The case stems from charges that Pirouz Sedaghaty (known as Pete Seda) falsified a 2000 charitable organization tax return in order to conceal his support of an independence movement in Chechnya, a republic in the Caucasus mountains of southern Russia. Seda founded the U.S. branch of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc. (“Al-Haramain”), a Saudi Arabian charity that the U.S. government suspected of funding…