Terror on Ice Feds: Slope Creamery Funded Qaeda by Deborah Kolben Elfgeeh, on the Surface, Would Seem the Brooklyn Papers an Unlikely Threat to National Security
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I N S BROOKLYN’S ONLY COMPLETE U • Bay Ridge author collects W L O P recipes of famous artists N • Ft. Greene home inspires Carla Cook Nightlife Guide • Sabre Mochachino’s fashion sense CHOOSE FROM 37 VENUES — MORE THAN 140 EVENTS! 2003 NATIONAL Brooklyn’s Weekly Newspaper AWARD WINNER Including The Downtown News, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper Published weekly by Brooklyn Paper Publications at 26 Court St., Brooklyn, NY 11242 Phone 718-834-9350 © Brooklyn Paper Publications • 14 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol. 26, No. 46 BWN • November 17, 2003 • FREE Terror on ice Feds: Slope creamery funded Qaeda By Deborah Kolben Elfgeeh, on the surface, would seem The Brooklyn Papers an unlikely threat to national security. He arrived in the United States 30 years The owner of a small Park Slope ice ago with a ninth-grade education, and cream shop was dishing out more than became a citizen five years later. He pralines and cream from his Fifth Av- was in the ice cream business for 20 enue storefront, federal prosecutors years, and had no previous arrests. charge, he was helping fund al Qaeda. News cameras and reporters Abad Elfgeeh, the Yemen-born propri- swooped in on the shuttered shop Mon- etor of the Carnival French Ice Cream day morning and workers in nearby store between 10th and 11th streets, who stores said they were in shock. lived three floors above the store, fun- “I don’t know how somebody can neled millions of dollars out of the coun- launder $20 million out of a stupid ice try, according to federal prosecutors. cream store,” said a salesman at Digi Acting on a tip, FBI agents discovered City, a cell phone store next door to that $20 million had passed through the Elfgeeh’s shop. ice cream shop’s bank accounts between The salesman — who described him- self as the “only Jewish guy in the / Tom Callan / Tom 1997 and early this year. Elfgeeh pleaded guilty last month in block” — said he had a good relation- a proceeding that escaped notice, per- ship with the family and often did busi- haps because the illegal money-transfer ness with the son. charge never mentioned terrorism. Mango / Greg “I still see them around all the time,” But a review of court files by the Asso- the salesman said of Elfgeeh and his The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn ciated Press revealed that prosecutors be- family. lieve Elfgeeh was an associate of a fellow “They were so nice, I can’t under- Yemeni, Sheik Mohammed Hasa Al- stand,” said Pat, an employee at Almars, a Moayad, who is charged in Germany with 50-year-old card shop across Fifth Av- Those we lost Papers The Brooklyn helping bankroll al Qaeda in the years be- enue. Feds have charged the owner of Carnival Ice Cream, on Fifth Avenue “I used to buy my milk there, it seemed Vietnam War veteran William Billifore pays his respects at the Korean War Memorial in fore the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Cadman Plaza Park at Tillary Street on Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11. Elfgeeh has denied any connection to between 10th and 11th streets, with funneling money to al Qaeda. See TERROR on page 5 al Qaeda. His attorney, Dawn Cardi, has ac- cused the government of having “a vendetta” against her client, who is awaiting a possible 10-year sentence. “It’s really despicable and disgusting, quite frankly,” she said at a recent hear- ing. New Nets bid Cardi has petitioned the court to al- No to Tubman low Elfgeeh — who was released under The Brooklyn Papers Times reported Tuesday that the It remains unclear when or if house arrest after posting a $5 million Three investment groups new bidder had formerly ex- a deal will be made with any of bond — to attend mosque prayer ses- seeking to buy the New Jersey pressed interest in buying the the bidders. sions twice a day during the holy period CB2 votes down ‘Harriet Tubman Blvd’ Nets — including Metrotech Milwaukee Bucks but is not If Ratner emerges the winner, of Ramadan. The Brooklyn Papers a proposal to rename Fulton Street for debate among board members — as developer Bruce Ratner — known in most sports circles. It he has proposed a 20,000-seat In his plea, Elfgeeh, 48, said he began also was not known if the arena and 5,500 units of residen- In a surprising vote counter to the Harriet Tubman, the Underground well state Sen. Velmanette Mont- have submitted revised bids, informally transferring money for family gomery, a vocal proponent of the re- but another unexpected fourth unidentified bidder had spent tial housing over the Metropoli- and friends in 1995 for a fee. As “the recommendation of its traffic and Railroad pioneer who freed hundreds tan Transportation Authority’s naming measure — over issues of racial bidder has also reportedly time with Nets management or money grew,” he “intended to get a li- transportation committee, Community of slaves. sensitivity and historical revision. made an offer for the NBA examined the team’s finances. See NETS BID on page 5 cense, but never got around to it,” he said. Board 2 on Wednesday night rejected The 23-14 vote followed a raucous When board member Anthony Ibelli team. questioned Tubman’s historical signifi- The bids were received Mon- cance to Brooklyn, saying, “She was on day by YankeeNets, the sports the Underground Railroad — she conglomerate that owns the Nets waved as she went through on the and the NHL’s New Jersey Dev- train,” in reference to Tubman, Mont- ils. gomery jumped out of her seat. The Downtown Brooklyn de- “This is quite insulting to me,” she veloper submitted a revised bid, Prophet margin shouted at Ibelli. “This doesn’t have any- as did Charles Wang, founder of thing to do with Brooklyn. This has to do Computer Associates and owner with — she was an African-American and of the New York Islanders hock- ‘Oracle’ drawing masses in search of truth a great African-American woman.” ey team, although specifics of Her fury mounting, Montgomery those bids were not made pub- By Deborah Kolben style sign owned by the third-generation, family- told him, “That is absolutely a racist lic. The Brooklyn Papers run hardware store. statement.” Once devoted to normal commercial enterpris- Also surprising to many in atten- None of the four bids exceed- For the past two months, a small but growing ed $300 million, and the highest es, like advertising sales on gallons of Benjamin dance was the about-face vote of Traffic crowd of people hailing from as near as the Moore paint, the 12-year-old, LED sign broke this and Transportation chairwoman Nancy one was separated from the low- Yummy Taco restaurant across the street and as est by about $30 million. summer. But its replacement bore a major glitch. Wolf who just last month voted in favor of renaming Fulton Street to honor Tub- Developer Charles Kushner far as Oklahoma have gathered outside Gino’s “There was a technical difficulty and we could man. The committee voted 8-1 in favor and U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, D- Pizzeria, on Flatbush Avenue and Bergen Street, only put up one message,” explained owner every Friday afternoon. Matthew Pintchik. “I thought, what else to do but of the renaming. N.J., leaders of the only group Mango / Greg Unlike the full board meeting, held in a that would keep the team in The assembled come seeking not the chicken thank Mr. Brooklyn.” calzone, which is quite good, but rather the advice So for three months, passersby on the busy in- packed auditorium of St. Francis College New Jersey, bid $250 million in Brooklyn Heights Wednesday night, for the team, the Star-Ledger of of a Brooklyn-based soothsayer who speaks to his tersection near the entrance to the 2/3 subway sta- tion were greeted with an ode to the borough’s the committee vote was held in a small Newark reported in Tuesday’s flock through an electronic sign above the Pintchik classroom at Downtown Brooklyn’s New editions. It cited unidentified of- home decorating store across the street. biggest booster. The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn York City of Technology, most of whose ficials with knowledge of the of- The Oracle, as he is commonly known, is “Borough President Marty Markowitz loves Brooklyn and Brooklyn loves Borough President audience was comprised of vocal propo- fer. The “Oracle” of Flatbush Avenue gives its opinions on former Yankees coach available for free consultation one day a week — nents of the renaming measure. Meanwhile, the New York Don Zimmer, and possibly Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez. generally on Fridays — through the news ticker- See PROPHET on page 5 The measure that CB2 rejected would have renamed Fulton Street from Classon Avenue to Flatbush Avenue. The section between Flatbush Avenue and Adams Street — the Fulton Mall — would have been co-named. Community Boards 3, 5 and 16, whose communities are largely black and which ‘Queer’ guy has eye for Atlantic Avenue share the majority of the nine-mile thor- oughfare that runs from Adams Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Cypress Hills on By Deborah Kolben apartments with fireplaces and developers of the apartments other important event in mind. party of its own to welcome pers while on location taping a the Queens border, have already passed The Brooklyn Papers decks, the most exciting part between Hicks and Henry Filicia, 33, an interior de- area real estate brokers on “Queer Eye” episode in the measure.