GREENBELT: Nisar Ahmed Chaudhry, age 71, of Columbia, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to failure to file a foreign agent registration statement, said US Department of Justice.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers; and Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.
According to his plea agreement, Chaudhry, a national of Pakistan and lawful permanent resident of the United States, represented himself to be the President of the Pakistan American League, an unincorporated entity he created and associated with his residential address in Maryland.
Chaudhry failed to file a registration statement with the Attorney General, as required by law, providing n
otification of his activities on behalf of the Gove
rnment 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 Sta
tes and Pakistan.
According to his plea agreement, from 2012 through 2018, Chaudhry acted as an agent of the Gove
rnment of Pakistan in order to engage in political activities for, and in the interests of, the Gove
rnment of Pakistan. These activities were designed by Chaudhry to obtain and manage inf
ormation on the status of the United States Gove
rnment’s policies regarding Pakistan, and to influence US gove
rnment officials and US foreign policy towards Pakistan.
Chaudhry interacted on a routine basis with representatives of the Gove
rnment of Pakistan, at their Embassy in Washington, D.C. and consular office in New York City. Chaudhry also interacted with numerous institutes, foundations, and organizations operating in and around Washington, D.C., commonly referred to as “think tanks,” that played a role in shaping and influencing US foreign policy. Chaudhry organized roundtable discussions in the Washington D.C., and Maryland metropolitan areas between his American gove
rnment and think tank contacts and visiting Pakistan gove
rnment officials to influence United States foreign policy in a direction favorable to Pakistan’s interests. Chaudhry cultivated contacts within these entities and the United States gove
rnment in order to obtain in-depth inf
ormation regarding the United States gove
rnment’s policies towards Pakista
n. Chaudhry then sought to neutralize unfavorable views of Pakistan held by current and former US gove
rnment officials by employing certain methods of discussion with these individuals during personal interactions with them and/or by controlling and manipulating discussion at the roundtable events he organized or attended.
In order to be more effective in obtaining inf
ormation of interest to Pakistan, and to gain a strategic advantage in acquiring inf
ormation that might not otherwise be divulged to official representatives of the Gove
rnment of Pakistan, Chaudhry falsely represented that his activities were solely educational in nature and not affiliated with the Pakistan gove
rnment. These representations were made not only to American think tank scholars, but also to current and former United States gove
rnment officials, including US Customs and Border Patrol agents who interviewed Chaudhry upon entry into the United States from his travels to Pakistan.
According to his plea agreement, Chaudhry regularly traveled to Pakistan to brief high-level Pakistan gove
rnment officials on inf
ormation obtained from his American gove
rnment and think tank contacts.
Published in Daily Times, May 9th 2018.