WASHINGTON – A Pakistani man pleaded guilty in the US federal court in Maryland over failing to disclose lobbying work on behalf of the Pakistani government, the Justice Department said Monday.
Nisar Ahmed Chaudhry, 71, who admitted to working as an unregistered foreign agent since 2012, faces a maximum prison term of five years when he is sentenced in July.
A federal law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) requires people to disclose to the Justice Department when they lobby or perform other political activities in the US on behalf of foreign governments. But the Justice Department has rarely brought criminal cases, choosing instead to encourage people to comply with the law rather than prosecute them when they fail to do so.
As part of his plea, Chaudhry, of Columbia, Maryland, admitted to secretly acting as an agent for the Pakistani government in an effort to get information about, and influence, US government policies toward Pakistan.
Prosecutors say, Chaudhry, who represented himself as the president of the Pakistan American League, organised round-table discussions in the Washington area aimed at influencing US policy and also travelled to Pakistan to brief government officials there on information that he had learnt from American contacts.
Chaudhry told US government officials, including Customs and Border Protection agents, and think-tank contacts that his work was solely educational in nature and not affiliated with the Pakistani government, the Justice Department said. In fact, prosecutors say, his activities were designed to shape American policy in a way that favoured Pakistani interests.
A federal defender listed as representing Chaudhry did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
A critical 2016 report by the Justice Department’s inspector general found that the department lacked a comprehensive enforcement strategy to penalise people who failed to file FARA statements.
That report found that between 1966 and 2015, the department only brought seven prosecutions for FARA violations.
Violations of FARA have gained greater attention since 2016, when US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the presidential election. Russian has denied those findings.
