U.S. probes Seaboard Corp for links to people on terror list -WSJ

Seaboard

22/11/2016 23:08

Nov 22 (Reuters) - The Department of Justice is 
investigating Seaboard Corp.  SEB.A  about whether the food 
processing giant did business with people and a company on the 
U.S. government's designated-terrorist list, the Wall Street 
Journal reported on Tuesday.   
    Seaboard, the Kansas-based firm known for its Butterball 
turkey brand in the United States, did not return Reuters' calls 
or emails seeking comment on the media report. 
    A Justice Department spokeswoman said the agency does not 
confirm or deny whether a matter is under investigation.  
    The newspaper's front-page story reported that, as part of a 
broad criminal probe, federal investigators are looking at 
whether Seaboard "tried to mask wheat-flour sales to firms 
linked to a Lebanese businessman and his family in the years 
after he and two brothers were put on the government's terror 
blacklist in 2009 and 2010." 
    A Treasury Department memo from 2010 said Kassim Tajideen, 
his brothers and business partners had financial ties to 
Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militant group based in Lebanon, 
according to the Journal's report. 
    Seaboard, according to the Journal's story, denied the 
allegations. The newspaper also reported that Tajideen said he 
had never heard of Seaboard and he denied having any ties to 
"any terrorist group." 
    "Penalties for companies working with anyone on the list 
range from fines to prison under laws intended to starve terror 
groups of cash to carry out attacks," according to the Journal 
story. 
 
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Terror Finance Abroad Touches Thanksgiving at Home    http://on.wsj.com/2g0ofeJ 
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 (Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago; Editing by Andrew 
Hay) 
 ((pj.huffstutter@thomsonreuters.com; 312-408-8737; Reuters 
Messaging: pj.huffstutter.reuters.com@thomsonreuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SEABOARD INVESTIGATION/