Robert F Kennedy building housing Department of Justice HQ in Washington D.C. Photo: Cool Ceasar/Wikimedia Commons
Nisar Ahmed Chaudhry, a regular participant in Washington think tank discussions on U.S.-Pakistan relations, Monday pleaded guilty in federal court to failing to file a foreign agent registration statement while working on behalf of the Pakistani government, the Department of Justice said.
Chaudhry, 71, of Columbia, Maryland, represented himself to be the President of the Pakistan American League, according to the plea. The U.S. federal law, known as Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), requires that people working on behalf of a foreign government must register with the Department of Justice.
“Chaudhry failed to file a registration statement with the Attorney General, as required by law, providing notification of his activities on behalf of the Government of Pakistan, and falsely represented that his activities in relation to Pakistan were solely educational in nature and executed for the benign purpose of encouraging better relations between the United States and Pakistan,” the Justice Department said.
According to his plea agreement, from 2012 through 2018, Chaudhry acted as an agent of the Government of Pakistan in order to engage in political activities for, and in the interests of, the Government of Pakistan, a news release said.
Chaudhry faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The court has scheduled sentencing for July 30 at 2 p.m. in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The Justice Department says Chaudhry’s activities were designed to obtain and manage information on the status of the U.S. Government’s policies regarding Pakistan, and to influence U.S. government officials and U.S. foreign policy towards Pakistan.
A national of Pakistan and lawful permanent resident of the United States, Chaudhry has for several years been a prominent presence in Washington think tank circles.
“Chaudhry failed to file a registration statement with the Attorney General, as required by law, providing notification of his activities on behalf of the Government of Pakistan, and falsely represented that his activities in relation to Pakistan were solely educational in nature and executed for the benign purpose of encouraging better relations between the United States and Pakistan,” the Department of Justice said.
The Justice Department says Chaudhry cultivated contacts within American organizations known as think tanks and the U.S. government in order to obtain in-depth information regarding the U.S. government’s policies towards Pakistan. Chaudhry then sought to neutralize unfavorable views of Pakistan held by current and former U.S. government officials by employing certain methods of discussion with these individuals during personal interactions with them and/or by controlling and manipulating discussion at the round-table events he organized or attended, the Department said.
“In order to be more effective in obtaining information of interest to Pakistan, and to gain a strategic advantage in acquiring information that might not otherwise be divulged to official representatives of the Government of Pakistan, Chaudhry falsely represented that his activities were solely educational in nature and not affiliated with the Pakistan government. These representations were made not only to American think tank scholars, but also to current and former U.S. government officials, including U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents who interviewed Chaudhry upon entry into the United States from his travels to Pakistan.”
SOURCE: Department of Justice
