An Egyptian who has been living and working in Brazil as a furniture mover says he long ago got an inkling that he was on the American security establishment’s radar.



A few years ago, while he was living in Istanbul, a friend told the man, Mohamed Ahmed El Sayed Ahmed Ibrahim, that American officials wanted to meet with him, he said. They wanted to learn, he was told, about the diaspora of Egyptians who sought refuge in Turkey after the crackdown on Egypt’s Islamist movement in 2013.

“I didn’t have interest in speaking to them,” Mr. Ibrahim said in a telephone interview on Saturday from São Paulo, the teeming financial hub where he says he is happily married and in the furniture moving business.

Mr. Ibrahim said he had thought little of the American request until last week. That is when the F.B.I. disseminated a bulletin with his name and photograph alleging that he is an operative of Al Qaeda who has plotted attacks against American interests.