Man freed after role in illegal Congress trip
WASHINGTON — Kemal Oksuz, a former Houstonbased businessman convicted of lying to Congress about Azerbaijan’s role in a funding a trip for 10 lawmakers — including four from Texas — walked out of a federal courthouse Monday a free man.
Oksuz, 49, was credited with three months he spent in an Armenian jail last year, plus another week that he was detained upon his return to the U.S. in November. He also will serve two years of probation and pay a $20,000 fine.
The Justice Department, arguing that Oksuz’s deception undermined bedrock American political institutions, had sought a one-year prison sentence, the maximum possible under federal sentencing guidelines.
Oksuz, described by family and friends as a nonprofit leader devoted to charity and international understanding, stood and thanked the sentencing judge, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan.
“Your honor, standing here is a great shame on me,” Oksuz said in court, making his first public statement since the case first came to light in a 2014 Houston Chronicle report.
“I feel embarrassed,” he continued, chocking back emotion. “It is not easy for me. I am going through hard times. … I take full responsibility for my unlawful conduct. I apologize. I am sorry for all the mess I have caused.”
Oksuz’s case ended a four-year corruption investigation that included the Office of Congressional Ethics, the House Ethics Committee and, finally, the FBI, which pursued him from Houston to Armenia, where he was living until last year.
Oksuz, who also goes by “Kevin,” refused to cooperate in the federal probes while living abroad for two years, leaving his family behind in Arlington, a Virginia suburb of Washington. But after his arrest in Armenia late last year on a U.S. warrant, he waived extradition and gave himself up to American authorities.
The Justice Department alleged that he used two Houston nonprofits in an international scheme to funnel money from the Azeri national oil company “in order to gain access” to members of Congress at a 2013 energy conference in the capital city of Baku. Still, despite the sweeping nature of those allegations, no members of Congress or other foreign officials were indicted in the probe. The Texas members of Congress who attended the Baku conference — including Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and now-retired Republican Rep. Ted Poe — said they believed their trips were legally funded by the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, one of the nonprofits headed by Oksuz out of a Galleria office tower in Houston.
The trip also included former U.S. Reps. Rubén Hinojosa, a Democrat from McAllen, and Steven Stockman, a Houston-area Republican now in prison on unrelated fraud charges.
They and other members of Congress and their staffs returned gifts or money they received for the Baku trip after the House Ethics Committee’s probe determined that funding for their hotel, airfare and gifts likely came from a foreign government in violation of House rules.
Oksuz admitted to lying on disclosure forms filed with the U.S. House Ethics Committee both before and after he helped use foreign money to illegally fund the trip.
He pleaded guilty Dec. 10 to a single felony count, saying he took “full responsibility” for knowingly misleading Congress about the true sponsor of the trip.
With no prior criminal record, federal sentencing guidelines called for a range of six months to a year in prison. In imposing a lighter sentence, Chutkan said she sought to balance the severity of the offense against what she called an “exemplary life” of charitable work and cultural exchanges.
“Mr. Oksuz has tried to build bridges,” Chutkan said. “I have to ask myself how society and our community would be helped by sending Mr. Oksuz to jail further, and I can’t see that as something that has to happen.”
A government sentencing brief said that by obscuring the role of the Azeri government in bankrolling the trip, Oksuz “was able to parade members of Congress and their staff around Azerbaijan where they were exposed to substantial government influence.”
Attorneys representing Oksuz argued that Azeri government officials were openly involved in the Baku conference, and that the mutual financial and political interests of the U.S., Turkish and Azeri governments in “energy security” were clear.
“There was no mistake about what was happening here,” said Philip Inglima, Oksuz’s lead attorney. “There was no request for something improper from any members of Congress. … It wasn’t improper influence. It was part and parcel of the conference.”
Prosecutors were rebuked for raising questions about Oksuz’s more recent work with Arlington Strategic Supplies and Manufacturing, a New York company reportedly involved in international arms sales, including guns and grenade launchers.
“This is quite a leap,” Chutkan said. “I have nothing but speculation. I can’t take that into consideration.”