After years of investigation, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment this week against the mastermind behind one of the most controversial congressional trips of the past decade, during which dozens of representatives and staffers were wined and dined in Azerbaijan in 2013.
Houston-based businessman Kemal Oksuz was recently arrested in Armenia and faces five separate counts for lying repeatedly about the trip’s funding source. The American government is now seeking his extradition.
Rather than being independently funded, as Oksuz claimed, the indictment describes how Azerbaijan’s state-run energy firm, SOCAR, actually bankrolled the trip. Members of Congress and their staffers received lavish gifts like crystal tea sets, silk scarves, and DVDs praising the country’s dictator on the junket.
From the Azeri government’s perspective, the trip made perfect sense: As one journalist wrote, the trip was “among the biggest concentrations of American political star power ever seen in the Caucasus.” But five years later, prosecutors now claim it was also one of the biggest shams in the history of foreign congressional trips.
The indictment lays out Oksuz’s ham-fisted attempts to conceal the Azeri government’s funding for the trip. According to the indictment, SOCAR funneled $1.5 million through a pair of separate groups — to apparently mask the source of the funding — before the money ultimately made it to Oksuz’s Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE).
Oksuz claimed on multiple occasions that TCAE was the sole funder of the trip, and that TCAE had “not accepted funding for the congressional trip from any outside sources.” According to the indictment, he claimed “TCAE will be paying for all trip expenses using its general funds. TCAE never receives additional outside funding to subsidize expenses for the trips. Our donors are our members: individual and corporate members.”
The indictment adds that Oksuz “knowingly and willfully falsified, concealed, and covered up by a trick, scheme, and device” information about the trip’s funding — and shows Oksuz effectively acting as an agent of the Azeri government to lobby the congressional representatives who came on the trip.
The trip initially appeared to pay dividends for the Azeri government. Despite the government’s descent into dictatorship over the past few years — Azerbaijan is a prime example of a modern kleptocratic regime — multiple trip participants soon began stumping for Azerbaijan’s energy industry upon returning to the U.S.
Prior to the indictment, however, the trip was widely considered one of the most controversial foreign congressional jaunts of the past decade — not least because of the sumptuous meals and luxurious gifts bestowed on the congressional representatives. (There is no allegation any representatives committed any wrongdoing during the trip, although the Azeri government’s funding was almost certainly illegal.) Among the attendees were Reps. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), Ted Poe (R-TX), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).
The tour through Azerbaijan, and the attendant fallout related to funding, also caused a schism between the House Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). After the House Ethics Committee appeared to try to quash the OCE’s investigation into the funding, the OCE — a semi-independent, non-partisan body tasked with helping the committee provide ethics oversight — released its investigation anyway. Those findings line up with this week’s indictment, noting that the trip was one of the most egregious ethics violations since the days of maligned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
As a recent Houston Chronicle editorial read, “Here’s some ethics advice for any aspiring politicians: If someone offers you an all-expenses-paid trip to Azerbaijan, don’t take it.” (One Azeri representative offered free airfare and lodging to this reporter to cover the 2013 trip, so long nothing “negative” was written “about Azerbaijan.” This reporter declined the offer.)
The OCE report also contained one of the more memorable quotes about the trip. When asked about whether statements claiming the TCAE was the sole funder were untruthful, one of the organizers said, “I mean, to be honest, it seems… like so, yes. I mean, we didn’t accept it maybe, but yes we did. What can I say?”