A Manitoba business owner says he's shocked that a former employee is now at the centre of a terrorism-related investigation and global law-enforcement manhunt.

Ray Nikkel said Ferid Imam worked for his landscaping and contracting business in 2000.

"He was the guy that if he asked me to date my daughter, I would have looked at him as a normal child and said, 'not a problem,' Nikkel said.

On Tuesday, RCMP and U.S. justice officials came forward to announce charges against Imam, 30, and Maiwand Yar, 27. The Mounties allege the former Winnipeggers were part of a conspiracy to participate in the activities of a terrorist group.

Both men went to Pakistan in March 2007 to participate as insurgents in the war in Afghanistan, but their whereabouts now are unknown, according to RCMP.

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Caption: Ferid Imam used to work for a Manitoba landscaping and contracting company. He's currently wanted in the U.S. and Canada. (RCMP)

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U.S. prosecutors have also charged Imam in a foiled al-Qaeda plot against New York City subways.

The court documents allege Imam, who also went by the name Yousef, was part of a conspiracy to attack the subways with suicide bombers in September 2009.

Nikkel told CBC News he was stunned by the news.

"To hear his name and see his face in the paper, I couldn't believe it," he said.

Imam didn't last long with Nikkel's company, he said. Despite being a friendly person, Nikkel said he fired Imam for being lazy after a few months on the job. The two never spoke again, he said.

Imam was reported missing March 10, 2007, when he was a mechanical engineering student at the University of Manitoba. Within five days, the missing persons report had evolved into a national security investigation.

Imam is accused of training terrorists in the use of weapons such as machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers overseas, U.S. court documents show.

A man accused in the New York subway plot told FBI investigators he travelled to Pakistan and lived with a man known to him as Yusef for about two weeks.

"During these two weeks, Yusef provided … both religious and military weapons training … Yusef also provided religious instructions on the rewards of fighting and dying for jihad," court documents obtained by CBC News state.

The charges against Imam have not been proven.