Aide to Democrats indicted
Awan faces four charges
Imran Awan, the former information technology aide to multiple Democratic members of Congress, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, was indicted Thursday on four charges, including bank fraud and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.
Also indicted was Awan’s wife, Hina Alvi, who also worked as an IT aide in Democratic congressional offices.
The charges don’t have a direct relationship to their work in congressional offices, but the criminal charges add to the political
heat directed toward their congressional employers, especially Wasserman Schultz.
Awan, 37, and Alvi, 33, were charged with:
Conspiracy to commit bank fraud, false statements on a loan or credit application and unlawful monetary transactions. Bank fraud. Making false statements on a loan or credit application.
Engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.
Here’s what happened, according to the indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.:
The couple conspired to obtain home equity lines of credit on rental properties that weren’t actually residences they lived in, the indictment alleges. They obtained the home equity lines of credit in the amounts of $165,000 and $120,000 from the Congressional Federal Credit Union, which has a policy of not extending such lines of credit when the property securing the loans is rental property.
“It was further part of the conspiracy that Awan and Alvi then transferred the funds obtained from those home equity lines of credit to individuals in Pakistan by directly initiating a wire transfer of those funds from Alvi’s checking account at CFCU to Pakistan,” the indictment states.
The unlawful monetary transactions involved “commerce in criminally derived property of a value greater than $10,000, that was derived from bank fraud and false statements on a loan or credit application.”
The indictment also alleges that an online application submitted in Alvi’s name for home equity lines of credit listed Awan’s cellphone number issued by the House of Representatives.
In January, the indictment states, Awan and Alvi went to the credit union branch in the Longworth House Office Building to initiate a $283,000 wire transfer to two people in Faisalabad, Pakistan. On the same day, a wire transfer specialist at the credit union called the number on the wire transfer request form and asked to speak with Alvi. “Awan answered the phone and pretended to be Alvi,” the indictment states.
During the conversation, Awan stated the money was for “funeral arrangements.” The credit union employee questioned the size of the transfer for that purpose and “Awan then changed his reason to ‘purchasing property.’ ”
On the same day, Alvi applied for a “financial hardship withdrawal” from her thrift savings plan. That’s a form of retirement account for federal government employees similar to 401(k) plans in the private sector.
“Alvi stated that the withdrawal was for ‘medical expenses,’ ” the indictment stated. That money was used to pay down home equity lines of credit.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington said no arraignment date has been set. The office said it wouldn’t comment beyond the indictment.
Christopher Gowen, founding partner of Gowen Rhoades Winograd & Silva, who has represented Awan, said by email Thursday evening that “we are confused as to why the government elected to prosecute such a minor case when it declines to prosecute hundreds of cases a month far more serious than these charges.”
Gowen criticized conservative media outlets that have been fueling the story. “Today’s indictment shows the right-wing media’s severe lack of credibility. Throughout the past two weeks, right-wing media including, Fox News, reported illegal activity committed by my client in relation to his dedicated service to the United States House of Representatives. Today, it is quite clear that every last one of those reports were utterly false. We look forward to reading the right-wing media’s retractions,” Gowen said.
In July, Awan was arrested for bank fraud at Dulles International Airport as he prepared to head to Pakistan. At the time, he pleaded not guilty and was released on supervision, including GPS monitoring, curfew, remaining within a 50-mile radius of his home, and turning over all his passports.
The conservative website The Daily Caller, which has published more than 20 articles on the subject since February, suggested Awan’s July arrest was a way to keep him in the country while an investigation into what it said is improper billing for computer equipment involving the House of Representatives continued.
The stakes are high politically for Wasserman Schultz. .
She was one of several Democratic members of Congress who used Awan and Alvi as shared employees working on information technology in their offices. None of the members of Congress has been accused of wrongdoing, but political foes have sharply criticized Wasserman Schultz’s judgment
Earlier this year, members of Congress were told that Awan and relatives and friends — several of whom did IT work for lawmakers — were under investigation and had their access to the House network suspended. Most members of Congress terminated them immediately.
Wasserman Schultz came up with new job duties that didn’t involve work in the IT network, and fired him the day after his July arrest. In an Aug. 3 interview with the Sun Sentinel, Wasserman Schultz said she kept Awan employed because she was concerned he may have been put under scrutiny because of his religious faith. Awan is Muslim.
“I had grave concerns about his due process rights being violated,” she said in the interview. “When their investigation was reviewed with me, I was presented with no evidence of anything that they were being investigated for. And so that, in me, gave me great concern that his due process rights were being violated. That there were racial and ethnic profiling concerns that I had.”
Wasserman Schultz said it would have been “easier for me just to fire him.” But, she said, she “did the right thing and I would do it again.”
Political challengers and Republican leaders have heaped criticism on Wasserman Schultz. Wasserman Schultz is the most prominent among the group of employers. She was chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee from 2011 to 2015, a period when she was outspoken in her criticism of some of the same people who are critical of her actions in this case.
In the Aug. 3 interview, Wasserman Schultz said much of the coverage of the case on conservative websites and social media is “completely untrue” and criticized “the right-wing media circus fringe” for jumping to conclusions.
On Wednesday, the campaign arm for House Republicans released an online ad titled “Corrupt,” targeting Wasserman Schultz for “continuing her lies and corruption” in relation to Awan. It makes several statements about the case and finishes with the lines, “Scandals, lies and corruption. That’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz.”
At the time of Awan’s arrest in July, Gowen, his attorney, said in a statement that the “attacks on Mr. Awan and his family began as part of a frenzy of anti-Muslim bigotry” and were pushed by “ultra-right wing” media sites.
An affidavit from FBI Special Agent Brandon Merriman, filed in connection with Awan’s July arrest, said Alvi left the country in March and has not returned. Though she had a ticket for a return flight in September, he “does not believe that Alvi has any intention to return to the United States.” Awan’s ticket in July to Qatar would have ultimately taken him to Pakistan with a return flight in January.
At the time of Awan’s arrest in July, Gowen said his client wasn’t trying to flee, and his family was staying with extended family in Pakistan because Awan and Alvi were “abruptly and unjustly fired, leaving them without a reliable source of income to pay typical U.S. living expenses, and because extremist right-wing bloggers were beginning to harass them and their children.”
Wasserman Schultz in the Aug. 3 interview said that it was absurd to conclude Awan was trying to flee the country. He filed a form to take an unpaid leave of absence and talked to Wasserman Schultz’s staff chief about his departure and return dates.
“He is from Pakistan. … He’s an American, a naturalized American citizen. His children are natural born citizens. His wife is a naturalized American citizen. And I mean when you’re trying to flee, you don’t fill out a form with your employer and go on unpaid leave,” she said.