A federal grand jury in New York today handed down an indictment of uber-Democratic donor and fundraiser Hassan Nemazee accusing him of defrauding three banks of nearly $300 million over the last decade and — here’s the kicker — funneling some of that money into political contributions to candidates and PACs.
Nemazee was the finance chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and went on to raise millions of dollars for President Obama in the general election. But prosecutors say Nemazee’s high-flying lifestyle was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by obtaining fraudulent loans from major banks, according to a DOJ press release:
“For more than ten years, Hassan Nemazee projected the illusion of wealth, stealing more than $290 million so that he could lead a lavish lifestyle and play the part of heavyweight political fundraiser,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “Today’s indictment exposes the sheer brazenness of Nemazee’s schemes and marks the end of his decade of deception.”
You may recall that Nemazee was charged last month with bank fraud of $74 million, but as prosecutors dug deeper they allegedly discovered a much broader fraud. In fact, after the FBI questioned him about that $74 million loan, he allegedly drew on another large fraudulent line of credit to quickly repay the $74 million, a move that has landed him in even more trouble.
Zack Roth has more.
It’s not at all clear yet that any campaigns or PACs will be directly implicated in this scheme. But what does it say about the current campaign finance system that you can literally buy your way into being a major donor and fundraiser — and do so with a fraudulently obtained “fortune”? It’s a remarkable indictment of the political system even though, I’m sure, we’ll be reassured that Nemazee was an anomalous rogue.
David Kurtz
David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.