Virginia man pleads guilty to concealing Pakistan's funding for his lobbying work

Washington (CNN) -- A Virginia man pleaded guilty Wednesday in a scheme to conceal Pakistani government funding for his lobbying efforts in the United States, the Department of Justice announced.

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, admitted conspiracy and tax violations in a decades-long scheme to conceal the transfer of at least $3.5 million from the government of Pakistan to help fund his lobbying efforts.

Fai was arrested in July. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge and a maximum three years for the tax violation. Sentencing is set for next March.

According to the Justice Department, as part of the plea agreement, Fai is forfeiting his interest in nearly $143,000 seized by the government.

Another individual, Zaheer Ahmad, 63, a U.S. citizen and resident of Pakistan, is also charged with involvement in the conspiracy but remains at large, possibly in Pakistan.

Fai was the director of the Kashmiri American Council, a non-governmental organization in Washington, the Justice Department said. According to court documents, the group was secretly funded by officials employed by the Pakistani government, including the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, known as the ISI.

The U.S. government said the council maintained it was run by Kashmiris and financed by Americans to raise U.S. awareness about the self-determination fight among the Kashmiri people.

"For the last 20 years, Mr. Fai secretly took millions of dollars from Pakistani intelligence and lied about it to the U.S. government," said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride. "As a paid operative of ISI, he did the bidding of his handlers in Pakistan while he met with U.S. elected officials, funded high-profile conferences and promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington."

Kashmir is at a center of the long-running dispute between Pakistan and India, both of which claim the mountainous region.

To prevent the Justice Department, FBI, Department of Treasury and the IRS from learning the source of the Pakistani money Fai made a series of false statements and representations, according to court documents.

"The illegal activity in this case, including tax charges and abuse of charitable organizations, harms all Americans, as we all have to pay our fair share for the government services and protections that we enjoy," said Jeannine Hammett, acting IRS special agent in charge of the agency's Washington field office for criminal investigations.

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