A top donor for both Republicans and Democrats, Imaad Zuberi allegedly sold access to key US politicians for millions in cash from foreign nationals, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.
"Everyone wants to come to Washington to meet people", the Associated Press quotes one Zuberi email from 2015 in which he tried to schedule a meeting between the president of Guinea and a congressman. "We get request(s) for meeting(s) from all scumbag of the world, warlords, kings, queens, presidents for life, military dictators, clan chiefs, tribal chiefs, and etc".
An investigation led by the Justice Department into Zuberi's activities only reportedly led to charges against a minor associate, with no one else who assisted Zuberi being charged. The said investigation also did not publicly name the politicians who received the donations raised by him.
Prosecutors called Zuberi a "mercenary" political donor, who for many years worked as an unregistered foreign agent for at least six foreign nations and political figures, sending over $1 million in illegal campaign donations over half a decade. His straw donor scheme included paying for others' donations with his credit cards, and involved cutouts using the name of a deceased individual as well as the names of people he allegedly made up.
The AP report is the result of its own independent investigation, in which the news agency identified associates and targets of Zuberi via private emails, court documents, campaign finance reports, and interviews with more than three dozen people.
According to the report, Zuberi's donations granted him access to top foreign and US officials, especially those with influence on foreign policy, such as senators Bob Casey and Lindsey Graham.
Emails uncovered in the investigation showed that Zuberi attempted to set up a 2015 meeting with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Ambassador to the US Serdar Kilic, then-House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Republican Ed Royce, and then-ranking member of the Lower chamber, Democrat Eliot Engel.
"Why don't you come to Los Angeles as my guest and I can have you meet both over dinner in private?", Zuberi wrote. "Let me know who else in the Foreign Affairs Committee you need help with? I know most of them on both sides".
The donor also allegedly made $9.8 million from the Qatari government, most of it illegally, according to the prosecution, as he lobbied Congress on behalf of that country. Law enforcement officials said he used his ties to pass potentially useful information to his associates and partners abroad.
He purportedly participated in a plot to get Congress to pressure the Bahraini government, acting on behalf of a businessman who was arguing with an official from Bahrain. As a result, twelve members of Congress sent letters on this subject, which Zuberi's lawyers said were a "common constituent service".
Zuberi admitted he had engaged in unregistered lobbying for Sri Lanka, but said his other work for countries and other individuals did not require him to register as a foreign agent.
"The government really, really wants to make an example of Mr Zuberi well beyond that merited by his actions", his lawyers argued in court filings.
Zuberi pleaded guilty to tax evasion, campaign finance violations, and failing to register as a foreign agent.
As stated in the report, prosecutors said that Zuberi's net worth was more than $30 million, with the "overwhelming majority" of the funds coming from his illegal activity. Federal prosecutors reportedly claimed that last year Zuberi offered six witnesses $6 million in exchange for their silence in the case against him.
On 7 January, US prosecutors asked a district court judge to sentence Zuberi to at least 10 years in prison and pay a $10 million fine, as well as around $16 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid taxes.