News

The president of a U.S.-based foundation under scrutiny for its ties to an Iranian bank was arrested after FBI agents observed him allegedly destroying documents relevant to the case, law enforcement officials said yesterday. Farshid Jahedi, president of the Alavi Foundation, accepted a grand jury subpoena on Wednesday asking for documents about Alavi's finances. On Thursday, FBI agents followed him as he headed home by train and car, and observed him tossing torn papers from his pockets in a public trash can, they said. FBI agents later retrieved the papers, written in Farsi and English, and determined they were related to complex transactions involving Alavi and a 36-story office building in Midtown Manhattan, the officials said.