Dr Fai pleads guilty to secret funding from ISI
Fai faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on charges of conspiracy.
WASHINGTON:
Nearly five months after he was arrested, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, director of the Kashmiri American Council, admitted that he had secretly received funds from the government of Pakistan, including the Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, for the past two decades.
Fai, 62, also admitted to tax violations and said he had concealed transfer of funds to the tune of $3.5 million to help fund his lobbying efforts for his Washington-based NGO.
According to a statement issued by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), in a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Fai faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy count and a maximum of three years in prison for the tax violation.
Dr Fai was arrested on July 19 on charges of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. At the time, the DoJ said that he had conspired to “falsify, conceal, and cover up material facts he had a duty to disclose in matters within the jurisdiction of Executive Branch agencies of the US government.”
He will be sentenced by a federal judge on March 9 next year. The DoJ said that, as part of his plea agreement, “Fai has agreed to forfeit his interest in $142,851.32 seized by the government in July 2011.”
In documents submitted in the court, Dr Fai admitted that, from 1990 to July 18, 2011, he received money from officials including those from the ISI employed by the government of Pakistan for the Kashmiri American Council. He reportedly accepted the money through co-defendant Zaheer Ahmed and other middlemen. Fai admitted to the court that he had obstructed and impeded the administration of the Revenue Service (IRS) laws “by arranging for the transfer of at least $3.5 million to the KAC from employees of the government of Pakistan and the ISI.” He concealed from the IRS that the straw donors’ purported KAC “donations” were reimbursed by Ahmad.
In a statement issued to the press, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco said: “Syed Fai today admitted his role in a decades-long scheme to conceal the fact that the government of Pakistan was secretly funding his efforts to influence US policy on Kashmir.”
US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride said in a press release, “for the last 20 years, Mr. Fai secretly took millions of dollars from Pakistani intelligence and lied about it to the US government. As a paid operative of ISI, he did the bidding of his handlers in Pakistan while he met with US elected officials, funded high-profile conferences, and promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.”
Fai had been placed under house arrest after payment of $100,000 as bond. In his first court appearance on July 26, his lawyers had told the court that their client had taken funds from the ISI, but he had endeavored to create awareness on the cause of Kashmiris.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2011.
Nearly five months after he was arrested, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, director of the Kashmiri American Council, admitted that he had secretly received funds from the government of Pakistan, including the Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, for the past two decades.
Fai, 62, also admitted to tax violations and said he had concealed transfer of funds to the tune of $3.5 million to help fund his lobbying efforts for his Washington-based NGO.
According to a statement issued by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), in a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Fai faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy count and a maximum of three years in prison for the tax violation.
Dr Fai was arrested on July 19 on charges of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. At the time, the DoJ said that he had conspired to “falsify, conceal, and cover up material facts he had a duty to disclose in matters within the jurisdiction of Executive Branch agencies of the US government.”
He will be sentenced by a federal judge on March 9 next year. The DoJ said that, as part of his plea agreement, “Fai has agreed to forfeit his interest in $142,851.32 seized by the government in July 2011.”
In documents submitted in the court, Dr Fai admitted that, from 1990 to July 18, 2011, he received money from officials including those from the ISI employed by the government of Pakistan for the Kashmiri American Council. He reportedly accepted the money through co-defendant Zaheer Ahmed and other middlemen. Fai admitted to the court that he had obstructed and impeded the administration of the Revenue Service (IRS) laws “by arranging for the transfer of at least $3.5 million to the KAC from employees of the government of Pakistan and the ISI.” He concealed from the IRS that the straw donors’ purported KAC “donations” were reimbursed by Ahmad.
In a statement issued to the press, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco said: “Syed Fai today admitted his role in a decades-long scheme to conceal the fact that the government of Pakistan was secretly funding his efforts to influence US policy on Kashmir.”
US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride said in a press release, “for the last 20 years, Mr. Fai secretly took millions of dollars from Pakistani intelligence and lied about it to the US government. As a paid operative of ISI, he did the bidding of his handlers in Pakistan while he met with US elected officials, funded high-profile conferences, and promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.”
Fai had been placed under house arrest after payment of $100,000 as bond. In his first court appearance on July 26, his lawyers had told the court that their client had taken funds from the ISI, but he had endeavored to create awareness on the cause of Kashmiris.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2011.