© Oliver/ZUMA Press/Splash News/NewscomSeveral congressional staffers took $100,000 from an Iraqi politician while they had administrator-level access to the House of Representatives’ computer network.
The money was a loan from Dr. Ali al-Attar, an Iraqi political figure, and was funneled through a company with "impossible"-to-decipher financial transactions that the congressional information technology staffers controlled.
Imran Awan, ringleader of the group that includes his brothers Abid and Jamal, has provided IT services since 2005 for Florida Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman. The brothers are from Pakistan.
The trio also worked for dozens of other House Democrats, including members of the intelligence, foreign affairs, and homeland security committees. Those positions likely gave them access to congressional emails and other sensitive documents.
The brothers, whose access to House IT networks has been terminated, are under criminal investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police.
Comment: Earlier this month, Rosiak reported:
Three members of the intelligence panel and five members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs were among the dozens of members who employed the suspects on a shared basis. The two committees deal with many of the nation's most sensitive issues and documents, including those related to the war on terrorism.A list of some of the figures the Awans did "IT" work for:
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The brothers are suspected of serious violations, including accessing members' computer networks without their knowledge and stealing equipment from Congress.
- Texas Democrat Rep. Joaquin Castro, on both the intelligence and foreign affairs panels
- Louisiana Democrat Rep. Cedric Richmond, on the Committee on Homeland Security
- Indiana Democrat Rep. Andre Carson, and California Democrat Jackie Speier, both members of the intelligence committee
- Illinois Democrat Rep. Tammy Duckworth, member of House committees dealing with the armed services, oversight, and Benghazi
- Florida Democrat Rep. Lois Frankel, member of the foreign affairs committee
Wasserman Schultz resigned from her DNC post following a disastrous email hack during the 2016 campaign. Her House spokesman did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation's question Monday about Imran's employment status. As of Feb. 6, she had declined to fire Imran.
Investigators found that congressional information was being copied to an off-site server and they suspect the brothers of improperly accessing information and stealing congressional property. Chiefs of staff for the employing Democrats were notified Feb. 2.
Soon after Imran began working for members of Congress, Imran's and Abid's wives—Hina Alvi and Natalia Sova—also began receiving congressional paychecks, The Daily Caller News Foundation found. Imran's employers included two members of the Intelligence Committee, Indiana Democrat Rep. Andre Carson and California Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier.
Comment: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appointed Carson to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2015. The panel "is charged with oversight of the United States' most sensitive national intelligence capabilities and operations". Carson has numerous ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. See also: How Obama's Muslim Brotherhood strategy and Flynn's intel-sharing with Russia both led to a Russian win in the Middle East
By 2009, the family was simultaneously managing a full-time car dealership in Virginia, with Abid running day-to-day operations after contributing $250,000 in startup cash. It was called Cars International A, LLC, referred to as "CIA" in court documents.
Imran boasted unusual clout among House Democrats, and was even pictured conversing with former President Bill Clinton. After Rao Abbas, who was owed money by the dealership, threatened to sue amidst allegations of deception and theft, Abbas appeared on the congressional payroll and received $250,000 in taxpayer payments.
Abid had "100 percent control" of the dealership, a one-time business partner said in court documents, in addition to his $165,000-a-year job working full-time for multiple representatives, including Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan and California Democrat Jim Costa.
"He had the dealer license and sole responsibility of running it. Abid would put cars on the lot, take them in consignment, sell them, do all the title work and get money from the retail sale," according to court documents. Multiple emails show the Awan brothers conducting business such as attending car auctions on weekdays.
"Imram later acted as owner since CIA was considered family business by the Awans," Abid's one-time business partner, Nasir Khattak, said in court documents. The car dealership's finances consisted of Byzantine transfers in which staff and cars were often swapped between it and a dealership next door, Khattak said.
Despite numerous family members making $160,000 congressional salaries, debts went unpaid by the brothers, including to the Congressional Federal Credit Union.
"It was very bad record-keeping in Cars International ... it is close to impossible to make any sense out of all the transactions that happened," Khattak said in court documents.
The $100,000 loan came as the dealership continued to rack up debt, court records show.
"Ali Al-Attar was out of the country as he was involved in politics and the formation of the Iraqi government," Khattak said in court documents.
In addition to his other jobs, Imran is a real estate agent, and Khattak is also a realtor who obtained the cash from Al-Attar and passed it through bank accounts used for real estate deals in Fairfax County, Virginia.
"Having lost my and Abid's collective investment of $500k due to Awan's mismanagement, [CIA] was further in debt $400k to other creditors," Khattak said in a lawsuit.
Khattak said Imran masterminded the family's finances and by late 2010, Imran "was running the business in full control" and "instructed Abid not to even speak to anyone."
The Iraqi cash disappeared amidst a dispute between Khattak and the Awans. Khattak said defaulting on the loan meant Al-Attar now owned the business, but the Awans refused to relinquish control.
In 2012, Abid declared personal bankruptcy, listing more than $1 million in liabilities. While debts to others went unpaid, he kept ownership of two houses, and Imran kept his own substantial property, despite his admitted role in the failed business.
Comment: The three brothers and one of their wives had a history of massive debts and bankruptcy. Strangely, this history seems to have been either missed or ignored by the routine background checks for such security-sensitive jobs. Histories like this "can create pressures to cash in on access to secret information and documents."
It's unclear how Abid found time to run an automotive business while working full-time for Congress. He had been on the congressional payroll since 2005. A congressional credit union repossessed two of his personal cars before the business folded.
A vendor who supplied Abid's business with cars said that he had not paid for the vehicles and wouldn't return them, either. "The consignment agreements state it clearly that either Mr. Awan sells the cars for the agreed price no less $62,200 or return my cars back," he wrote.
On a car record showing the title had been released to Abid, the vendor said "this is no authorise [sic] also I have no information about this car bought by defendant under my company business buy and sale no authorise [sic]."
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Abid's record includes numerous driving- and alcohol-related legal problems, including driving with a suspended or revoked license, court records show. He was found guilty of drunk driving a month before he started at the House, and was arrested for public intoxication a month after his first day.
Bankruptcy documents listed Abbas as a creditor and said he might sue Abid, but Abbas later took the brothers' side in a lawsuit against Khattak, who said that the Awans had somehow manipulated him to do so. Not long after, Abbas appeared for the first time on the congressional payroll, and collected $250,000 from taxpayers through the end of last year.
Four out of the six Democrats he worked for also employed Imran. His employers included a member of the Intelligence Committee, Patrick Murphy of Florida; a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Theodore Deutch of Florida; and Brad Ashford of Nebraska, who is on the Armed Services Committee.
Abbas' congressional email was cut off in early February, around the time the Capitol Police revealed that they had uncovered a scheme involving a network of IT aides. The Awans' access has also been cut off. Reached at a personal email address, Abbas did not respond to repeated questions from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Abid claimed the Iraqi doctor may never have existed. "If as suspected, all of this is a charade, particularly if it is learned the mysterious Dr. Al-Attar doesn't exist or didn't sign the documents, then the whole matter rises to a higher level," he said in court documents.
Comment: Rosiak also reported yesterday that Attar, the Iraqi politician referred to in this article, "has been linked to Hezbollah". This information comes from Phil Giraldi:
Attar "was observed in Beirut, Lebanon conversing with a Hezbollah official" in 2012 - shortly after the loan was made. Attar has also been accused of helping provoke the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq as a leader of Iraqi dissidents opposed to Saddam Hussein.
After moving to the U.S., Attar made his money practicing medicine in Maryland and Virginia and defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies by billing for non-existent medical procedures. The FBI raided his offices in 2009 and the Department of Health and Human Services sued his business partner in 2011.
Attar was indicted in March 2012 on separate tax fraud charges after the IRS and FBI found he used multiple bank accounts to hide income. He fled back to Iraq to avoid prison.
"He's a fugitive. I am not aware of any extradition treaty with Iraq," Marcia Murphy, spokesman for federal prosecutors in Maryland, told TheDCNF Tuesday. "If or when he returns to the U.S., the prosecution will continue."
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Giraldi, the former CIA officer, wrote in the American Conservative in 2013 that Attar advised President George W. Bush's key Iraq policy advisors that U.S. forces would be "greeted as liberators."
"In late 2002 and early 2003, [then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz regularly met secretly with a group of Iraqi expatriates, consisting mostly of Shias but also including several Sunnis, who resided in the Washington area," Giraldi wrote. "The Iraqis were headed by one Dr. Ali A. al-Attar."
Attar's prediction was wrong, and his qualifications for making it — supposedly based on what the D.C.-area Iraqis were hearing from relatives — were questionable because, although Attar was born in Iraq, his parents were Iranian.
But the U.S.-backed regime change served Attar well, as in 2003, he told The New York Times that "he was one of four people chosen by General Garner to re-establish the Iraq Ministry of Health, and that he expected to be called Baghdad next week."
That stay in Iraq apparently did not last long, as in 2009, his medical license was suspended by Maryland for separate instances of billing patients and insurance companies for unneeded services.
In November 2010, the Maryland State Board of Physicians brought still more charges of "unprofessional conduct in the practice of medicine and failure to cooperate in a lawful investigation."
Attar's attorney said the board was a "Trojan horse" for the FBI. The board said Attar's "failure to cooperate with the board investigation was deliberate, longstanding and defiant," and in March 2012 revoked his license.
The Awan brothers worked for members including Andre Carson of Indiana, one of two Muslims in Congress and a member of the ultra-sensitive intelligence committee.
The youngest Awan brother, Jamal, was also placed on the House payroll at 20 years of age and makes $160,000, far higher than others in similar jobs.
Comment: From one of Kosiak's earlier pieces:
Jamal, who public records suggest is only 22 years old and first began working in the House when he was 20, was paid nearly $160,000 a year, or three times the average House IT staff salary, according to InsideGov, which tracks congressional salaries. Abid was paid $161,000 and Imran $165,000.
The Daily Caller News Foundation was the first to identify the brothers and Alvi and now, Sova, and Abbas.
Comment: Mad World News' Rebecca Diserio points out that the Awans were fired shortly after the Navy SEAL Team Six mission in which William "Ryan" Owen was killed in Yemen. She writes: