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Virginia Man Accused Of Secretly Lobbying For Pakistan

The Justice Department has charged an American citizen with acting as an agent for Pakistan, NPR's Carrie Johnson reports. Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai of Fairfax, Va., is specifically accused of lobbying members of Congress in a bid to influence U.S. policy in the dispute with India over Kashmir, without properly registering his activities.

Fai, 62, allegedly accepted more than $4 million over the past two decades from straw donors working on behalf of Pakistani intelligence services. He was arrested this morning, the Justice Department says.

In a statement, Justice adds that Fai "serves as the director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), a non-governmental organization located in Washington, D.C., that was founded in 1990 and also goes by the name 'Kashmir Center.' "

A second U.S. citizen has also been charged. But 63-year-old Zaheer Ahmad is believed to be in Pakistan, authorities say.

FBI agents say they visited Fai three times since 2007 but he always denied he had links to intelligence services in Pakistan. He had not registered as a foreign agent with U.S. authorities.

Fai, 62, faces as many as five years in prison if he's convicted.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.