Imaad Zuberi gets 12 years in campaign finance scheme
A once high-flying political fundraiser who prosecutors said gave illegal campaign contributions to Joe Biden, Lindsey Graham and a host of other U.S. politicians was sentenced Thursday to 12 years behind bars.
Imaad Zuberi, who was accused of ingratiating himself with
politicos in both major parties and peddling the resulting influence to foreign
governments, pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, campaign finance
violations and failing to register as a foreign agent.
He also was ordered to pay nearly $16 million in restitution
and a nearly $2 million fine. He reports to prison May 25.
Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Virginia
Phillips for a stiff sentence, calling the scope of Zuberi's scheme
unprecedented. The Los Angeles businessman's crimes included unregistered
lobbying for governments with spotty human rights records like Sri Lanka and
Turkey as well as a Ukrainian oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir
Putin, prosecutors said.
Zuberi, 50, maintained his wrongdoing had been limited and
asked to be credited for years of cooperation with federal and local law
enforcement. His attorneys noted he already has paid more than $10 million in restitution.
Some of that cooperation remains under seal. Phillips,
citing national security interests, closed the courtroom for part of Thursday's
proceedings to discuss classified information Zuberi filed in an effort to
reduce his sentence. Zuberi’s attorneys asked Phillips to credit him for a list
of law enforcement leads and intelligence he provided to the federal
government, according to people familiar with the court filings.
Zuberi, a Pakistani-American who has extensive business
dealings overseas, was in frequent contact with a CIA officer over the years
and bragged to associates of his ties to the intelligence community, The
Associated Press reported last year.
The sentencing came just days after hundreds of pages of
previously sealed court filings in the case were made public at the behest of
the AP and other media organizations.
The trove of court documents offered new details about how
prosecutors unraveled Zuberi’s scheme and also include photographs of him
rubbing shoulders with then-Vice President Biden and other prominent
officeholders.
Zuberi had been planning to assist federal authorities in a
corruption investigation of an unnamed mayor in California, his attorneys wrote
in a newly unsealed memo. He was even “preparing at an FBI office for a
recorded conversation” when that effort was called off after news broke that
federal prosecutors in New York were investigating the $900,000 contribution
Zuberi made to former President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, the records
say. Zuberi has admitted obstructing that federal investigation.
Portions of the newly unsealed documents were redacted, in
part, because of ongoing criminal investigations. Prosecutors revealed last
year that there is an investigation into Zuberi’s ties to Qatar. Zuberi
secretly lobbied the Trump White House and Congress on behalf of the small
gas-rich monarchy, which has paid him $9.8 million, prosecutors have alleged in
court papers.
These documents also demonstrate how Zuberi built a
widespread network of contacts, thanks in part to his prodigious political
giving. That included six-figure donations to the Obama-Biden ticket in 2012
and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.
No one who accepted tainted money from Zuberi has been
accused of wrongdoing, and Biden, through a spokesman, has said he had no
knowledge of Zuberi’s illegal acts when they met, mostly at donor roundtables
when Biden was vice president.
The new records show that Zuberi donated to or hired several
Washington advocacy groups, lobbying shops, and public relations firms. He also
had well-connected people on his payroll for various business projects,
including former NATO supreme commander Gen. Wesley Clark.
Emails obtained by the AP show Zuberi sought Clark’s help
for work related to a company owned by Dmitry Firtash, a Putin-friendly
oligarch fighting extradition to the United States on federal bribery and
racketeering charges. Prosecutors say Zuberi made $1 million doing unregistered
lobbying work for Firtash. Zuberi has said the money was for legitimate
business transactions.
Clark did not respond to requests for comment.
The AP previously reported that Zuberi used an
unsophisticated straw donor scheme in which he paid for others’ donations with
his credit cards and used cutouts that included a dead person and names of
people prosecutors say he made up. The AP’s investigation found several
instances where Zuberi-linked donations to members of Congress occurred within
a few weeks or even days of him receiving something he sought in return.
For example, Zuberi gave $5,200 to U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas
around the time his office sent an official letter in late 2013 to the National
Archives expressing support for a Zuberi associate seeking to do business
there, according to emails obtained by the AP.
“This is why you are getting the letter,” Zuberi wrote to
his associate. “Just want to make sure you realize it.”
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