By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT — A Brooklyn man charged with helping to "modernize" al Qaeda is too dangerous to be released pending his trial, a Manhattan judge decided Monday.
Sabirhan Hasanoff, an American citizen, Baruch College graduate and former accountant, conducted jihad-related discussions via G-chat while using code words to disguise the conversation, prosecutors said in court.
A judge ordered Hasanoff held without bail.
"Hasanoff ... has significant computer skills and the ability to engage in cryptic communications," Federal Magistrate Judge James Francis said at Hasanoff's first court appearance in Manhattan.
He and his co-defendant, Wesam El-Hanafi, had been extradited from Dubai and produced in a Virginia courthouse on April 30.
Federal prosecutors said Hasanoff, 34, tried to hide his IP addresses in order to dodge authorities while working on assignments for al Qaeda.
He also served as a technology advisor for the organization's members overseas and "jumped at the chance" to swear an oath with the organization, federal prosecutor John Cronan said.
Hasanoff, who was educated in the U.S. but traveled extensively around the Middle East as a chief financial officer for a securities firm in Dubai, is now an "extreme danger to the community," Cronan said.
Prosecutors believe he was making Al Qaeda connections while traveling.
He had been on a no-fly list and was prevented from boarding an international flight earlier this year but was cleared by the FBI shortly afterward, his attorney, Anthony Ricco, said.
Ricco said 15 family members and friends, all who attended the court appearance, were prepared to sign a $2 million bail bond for Hasanoff's release.
"They all have professional jobs such as [Hasanoff] had before his arrest," Ricco said.
Hasanoff is scheduled to reappear in court on May 20 for a preliminary hearing.
