An Islamic, Manhattan-based charity suspected of being an illegal front for Iran is funding professors at US universities, the New York Post reported Monday

The paper said that the multimillion-dollar Alavi Foundation had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to programs at Columbia University and Rutgers University for Middle Eastern and Persian studies that employ anti-Israel professors “sympathetic” to the Islamic republic. (The adjacent photo is of Protesters at Columbia when it hosted the Iranian President there).

The Post did not cite the FBI’s arrest of Farshid Jahedi, the president of the Alavi Foundation, and that he was indicted for allegedly destroying documents subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating the Alavi Foundation’s relationship with Bank Melli Iran and the ownership of a Manhattan office building. On December 19, 2008, Jahedi was arrested by the FBI  in New York City on a criminal complaint in that case.

The Post article says “We found evidence that the government of Iran really controlled everything about the foundation.” The New York Post quoted Adam Kaufmann, investigations chief at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, as saying.

Feds are working to seize up to $650 million in assets from the Alavi Foundation, which they say also provides funds to a syndicate of Iranian spies based in Europe, the newspaper added.

The New York Post cited one of the biggest donations as being $100,000 to Columbia after the university hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“This is all about Iran laundering their policies through academe,” the newspaper quoted Michael Rubin, an Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, as saying. “And the ivory tower is prostituting itself for money.”

In response, Rutgers professor Hooshang Amirahmadi Amirahmadi told the New York Post, “Grants from Alavi are made to the universities, not to the professors.” It is unclear exactly what that is supposed to mean.

The paper noted that Amirahmadi, former head of the school’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and president of the nonprofit advocacy group American-Iranian Council, had touted Hizbullah and Hamas as legitimate organizations and not terror groups.

It quoted Columbia spokesman Robert Hornsby as saying that said Alavi’s donations rarely topped more than a few thousand dollars and that the school was surprised the foundation had direct ties to the Iranian government.

The Alavi foundation declined to comment to the New York Post.

According to its website The Alavi Foundation was organized in 1973. Its 2007 IRS 990 PF report list assets of nearly $88 million including $27.5 million in buildings and equipment. It claimed to operate in New York, Maryland, Texas and California. It list its address as 500 Fifth Avenue 26^th Floor and a telephone number (212) 944-8333. It reports $3 million on contributions but recipients.are not listed.

The urban dictionary colloquially defines alavi as a really dumb person, characterized by Asiatic looks and egg-shaped face when crying.

Its website is infected with MalWare that appears to  be designed to capture the address of any computer accessing it.