Kassim Tajideen, 62, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington, DC, on Friday, and will be held in jail until a detention hearing next week, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Tajideen had been arrested on March 12 in Morocco on an international warrant issued by Interpol's Washington office.
US authorities say Tajideen ran a multi-billion-dollar "global business empire" that traded in commodities across the Middle East and Africa. In 2009, US authorities placed Tajideen on a sanction blacklist because of his alleged support for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.