Group: Claim is ethnic profiling

Terry Kinney

Monday, March 10, 2003 | 9:41 a.m.

CINCINNATI -- Members of a northeast Ohio group say their support of a Roman Catholic school in Lebanon has been wrongly linked to Middle East terrorism.

A letter from the head of a New York-based international investigation company was cited in a sentencing hearing last week in the case of Philip F. George Jr., an Akron businessman convicted of running an illegal instant bingo operation.

That letter, written by Juval Aviv, president of Interfor Inc., said the United Saghbeen Society was known to have supported the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

"It's a complete falsehood," said Dan Silfani of Akron, a society member. "It was completely false and libelous."

Aviv refused to discuss the letter. Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Bill Anderson, who handled the gambling trial, did not return a call seeking comment.

George, 43, was sentenced on Thursday to serve 25 years in prison after being found guilty on eight counts of an 11-count indictment. He was convicted on charges of gambling, operating a gambling house, money laundering, conspiracy and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

A jury found him guilty of running a tip-ticket operation in clubs and bars that prosecutors said grossed more than $50 million in about two years.

When investigators raided several places in November 2000, they confiscated about _$4.8 million in cash, including about $3.6 million at the home of James H. Jackson, 64, of Tallmadge, who accepted a plea bargain and testified against George.

No money was found at George's home or vending machine business.

Members of the Saghbeen Society say George was never a member of that group. The group allowed its name to be used for instant bingo sales until it learned of possible illegal activities.

"Once our society found out there were issues down in Hamilton County, we got out of it," Silfani said.

Prosecutors alleged that George and others stole most of the money raised in the name of charity, but that some of the money that reached the United Saghbeen Society was diverted to terrorist groups once it reached Lebanon.

"I know the school. I know what it is doing for the town (of Saghbeen)," said Michael Jasser of Akron, treasurer of the group. "The mother superior of that school takes care of the money. We're in contact with her all the time. Every time we send her a check, she calls us."

Jasser said the society has been supporting the school since the 1940s. Some of the society's founding members came to the Akron area from Saghbeen.

The implication that everyone of Lebanese descent would support terrorism is the worst form of ethnic profiling, Silfani said.

"They're lumping all these people in the Middle East to be under one group," he said. "For them to make the claim that Catholics are funding a terrorist organization is outrageous."

Harrold Torrens, the Ohio Department of Public Safety agent who led the investigation of the instant bingo scheme, said the allegations regarding the United Saghbeen Society have been referred to Interpol, the international policing organization, and to the FBI.

Torrens, who read the letter during George's sentencing, said Aviv was not hired to investigate the society but wrote the letter because he is "pro-police."

"We think it's a legitimate report," Torrens said.