Fundraiser Secretly Lobbied U.S. Officials for Foreign Countries

A Los Angeles businessman who served as a top fundraiser to U.S. presidents and members of Congress secretly lobbied for years to advance the interests of an array of foreign governments and people, including a Ukrainian oligarch fighting extradition for criminal prosecution in the U.S., according to prosecutors.

Imaad Shah Zuberi funneled millions of dollars in illegal foreign contributions into the campaign accounts of U.S. politicians and hid the source of the funds by making the donations in the name of third parties, prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday. The clients included Saudis, Kuwaitis, a faction of the Libyan government, Sri Lanka and Turkey, as well as Dmitry Firtash, who paid Zuberi $1 million to burnish his image as he has fought U.S. efforts to prosecute him on foreign-bribery charges, according to the filing.

Zuberi’s prosecution comes as the Justice Department has intensified focus on secret foreign influence peddling amid growing concern that U.S. foreign policy has been swayed at times by hidden forces. It has come to a head in the aftermath of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the prosecution of Americans who were secretly working to advance foreign interests, such as Paul Manafort.

“Public opinion is already rife with suspicions that foreign influence has compromised our elections and confidence in our democratic institutions has weakened,” prosecutors said. The Zuberi case verifies “pervasive, corrupt foreign interference with our elections and policy-making processes,” they said.

Zuberi raised funds for the campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the inaugural committee of President Donald Trump, and steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican and Democratic congressional campaign committees.

U.S. prosecutors in New York and Los Angeles charged Zuberi with tax evasion, secret foreign lobbying and obstruction of justice. He has pleaded guilty to some of the charges and the cases were consolidated in Los Angeles. The new allegations of influence peddling were raised in a court filing by prosecutors in Los Angeles, who asked a judge to impose a stiff penalty when Zuberi is sentenced May 18.

Zuberi’s work influenced U.S. foreign policy as it related to Sri Lanka, Turkey and Libya, and fooled a dozen members of Congress into pressuring Bahrain’s foreign minister, according to prosecutors. A foreign national paid Zuberi millions of dollars to put U.S. pressure on Bahrain, because the government had frozen his assets, according to prosecutors.

“Nearly the entirety of defendant’s business activities and profits involved trading on his ability to influence U.S. government officials by engaging in concerted lobbying efforts and making enormous campaign contributions that, unbeknownst to the recipients and the public, were funded by prohibited foreign sources,” prosecutors said in the filing.