Dr Fai pleads guilty to secret funding from ISI
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.
COMMENTS (37)
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Dr Fai apparently thought holding a citizenship is something akin to having a mere ration card. He is not accused for lobbying for Kashmir cause (whatever that may be), he is accused of working for a foreign intelligent agency, which in any other country would be equally prohibitted, including Pakistan.
@Hu Jintao: "...and somehow FBI did not find Israeli lobbying guilty which has been going on for decades" Israel receives money from US government (just like Egypt does) and Jewish organizations. It doesn't dole out money as Pakistan did secretly in this case. And, it doesn't have to lobby anyone because US official policy is to support it at any cost. Can you see the difference? Pakistan does lobby the US Congress transparently through professional lobbying groups and various Pakistani-American groups.
@You Said It: U live in a wonder world! Good for u!
@Babloo:
Geelani is on ISI payroll since the beginning. How do you think he maintains his palace. If GoI had guts, he will be jail for sedition and keys will be thrown in Bay of Bengal.
But Congress is in trying-to-please every one business while not pleasing anyone.
and somehow FBI did not find Israeli lobbying guilty which has been going on for decades
@FAZ: I know one thing: If there had been thousands and thousands of Dr. Fai, registered as lobbyist or not! Kashmir would still be burning, their youth killed while protesting and their women raped for being a Kashmiri!
So you're saying that the killings of Kashmiris and the protests in Kashmir are instigated by the likes of Dr. Fai and not the natural voice of the native people. Good to know and I agree.
@whatever:
"this world perception of pakistanis being bad and pakistan to blame for everyyy misdeed has been done to death and is frankly, getting old"
If is is getting old, it does not mean it is no longer the truth.
@A Battered Kashmiri: So why do they not object to the lobbying of India under the garb of RAW? So they choke a big voice of Kashmiris. Which is seldom heard. It is painful. Screw America and it’s interest. Free Kashmir
You're missing the point of the whole case -- Fai was never a voice of Kashmiris. He plead guilty to being the voice of the ISI. Which is heard everywhere in Pakistan, too much perhaps. I agree it is painful to hear this. But Kashmir valley has been free all along, only ISI was pretending it wasn't.
India is does lobby the US -- but it doesn't bother to go through RAW for this, since its legal to lobby. India's lobbying expenses are openly declared in the Indian budget.
If the CIA gave millions of dollars to a Pakistani civilian who in turn gave that money to Pakistani officials to pursue a cause favorable to US policy -- Pakistani's would rightly be offended. This guy was caught - has admitted his guilty - made the FBI look good and the ISI look inept.
@Proud Pakistani Pakthoon
Must have been an angry anti American moderator working when you posted this - doubt that any moderator would allow such a vulgar statement against Pakistan.
I know one thing: If there had been thousands and thousands of Dr. Fai, registered as lobbyist or not! Kashmir would still be burning, their youth killed while protesting and their women raped for being a Kashmiri! Palestine and Kashmir, Us dont give a damn! Face it people!
Good work Fai and ISI. We need to give such US based Kashmiris more money for the Kashmir cause ...every country does lobbying in US, why not Pakistan.
Thank you USA for exposing a fake organization for so called Kashmiris which was nothing but a paid propoganda wing of Pakistan ISI/army.
@A Battered Kashmiri: "So why do they not object to the lobbying of India under the garb of RAW?" Any country can lobby and they are free to do so. If Pakistan had been transparent about their lobbying by registering Fei as an agent for Pak government there would have been no issue. Fei however hid his links to Pak and ISI and thus deliberately misled the Congress people that he was lobbying with.
Mossad, Raw & CIA Conspiracy! Go back to sleep.
mark please go back to america. and stop stalking our newspapers. i am not some self righteous patriot but this world perception of pakistanis being bad and pakistan to blame for everyyy misdeed has been done to death and is frankly, getting old. why dont you guys withdraw your troops and stop bombing our people. your war has cost us an arm and a leg as well as so many innocent civilians and our soldiers killed by YOUR forces and yet you accuse us of being in bed with the talibans, haqqanis, et al. GO. LEAVE. US. ALONE.
Pakistanis are always in bad news aren't they ? Ofcourse, the world is plotting against them.
So much for the "spontaneous" Kashmir uprising !!
@jeez:
Fai is an American citizen, so, it is indeed their business not yours.
This is where taxpayers money is going.This is why no development is taking place. Our money in pockets of FA pass faujis and Kashmir lobyists. Shame .Shame .Shame our so called ideological & geographical protectors.
@Noor: "Pleads guilty, just like Dr Afia??"
Aafia did not plead guilty. Check your facts.
So why do they not object to the lobbying of India under the garb of RAW? So they choke a big voice of Kashmiris. Which is seldom heard. It is painful. Screw America and it's interest.
Free Kashmir
@jeez: "We will always support our Kashmiri brothers – so what? its our issue, not even a US issue!"
You can support whoever you want. No-one said Fei should not have lobbied for Kashmir. But he should have registered as an agent of Pakistani government, so that the COngress people dealing with him were not deceived into thinking that he led an independent human rights organization whereas he was simply promoting Pakistan's interests.
@Ali: "Can we not bring him back like Raymond Davis was taken back?" HE is not a Pakistani citizen, so Pakistan does not have locus standii - unlike Raymond Davis who was a US citizen so US had locus standii.
Secondly US claimed he worked for embassy. Pak in fact denied that Fei ever worked for them. In fact if Pak had actually owned up to the fact that Fei worked for them - there would have been no case to begin with. The premise of the whole case is that Fei hid the fact that he was working for ISI and hence his lobbying where he pretended to be a human rights activist was malafide.
@Zaki Khalid:
"Ms. Huma, nowhere has Dr. Fai been charged for funding from ISI and neither has he accepted this."
Have you really read the news article? The man has been charged in a US court for violating US laws. Fai has admitted that he was an ISI agent and was taking money and orders directly from the ISI. He has admitted to submitting an annual budget every year to the ISI for funding. This is all in black and white in the US court proceedings which are public documents. The so-called Kashmir American Council was an ISI organized and supported group.
Can we not bring him back like Raymond Davis was taken back? At least he did not kill anyone like the American guy did.
Pleads guilty, just like Dr Afia??
And how about US funding terrorists such as the Taliban?! And for creating them in the first place.. We will always support our Kashmiri brothers - so what? its our issue, not even a US issue!
Ms. Huma, nowhere has Dr. Fai been charged for funding from ISI and neither has he accepted this. This is a conspiratorial headline to attract readership in ET. Disinformation.
Oops! Yet another blow to the 'Denying stance' of Pakistani establishment.
I want to become lobbyst for ISI!
Another one bites the dust, few million more to go. This one question keeps popping in my head- is there a connection between fall in fortunes of Mr. Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai and rise in fortunes of Mr. Manzoor Ijaz? Pardon me please, I hope no one is paying attention to me, I am just thinking aloud.
Dr. Fai has not been indicted for taking money from ISI/Pakistan. He has been indicted for not registering as a lobbyist for a foreign government to influence US Congress. For obvious reasons, both Dr. Fai and Pakistan concealed facts infringing US law for which now he will have to pay the price not only by being behind bars and his life ruined but also he can forget Kashmir. So, will all his friends in that unholy venture. Now, action against two other Kashmir Councils - in Europe - shall be taken by the respective governments. there
ridiculous?? the US is really in bed with India and this case proves it..
This is all a conspiracy to defame ISI!
The Americans are so into law and justice.. but only if in there land, and not ours. So I say, screw America.