An Obama-era ambassador will plead guilty to illegally lobbying for Qatar and taking $20,000 a month from a criminal fixer who channeled illegal campaign contributions to Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham.
Richard Olson, 62, is a former career diplomat who served as ambassador to Pakistan and the UAE. In 2016, he ended his 34-year tenure at the State Department as Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He is now accused of running a secret lobbying campaign for the Qatari government. He is said to have attempted to do business while still in his role at the State Department. He plans to plead guilty.
Documents filed by prosecutors say Olson was paid $20,000 a month by an unnamed Pakistani-American lobbyist immediately after he left office, in violation of a year-long federal lobbying ban on former officials.
The lobbyist also allegedly funded a $19,000 trip to the UK in 2015 for Olson to discuss a $300,000 deal with a Middle Eastern businessman while he was still ambassador.
can reveal that the lobbyist is Imaad Zuberi, an LA-based jet set playboy who is currently serving 12 years in prison after injecting foreign money into the campaigns of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham and a host of other US – Politician stuck.
Richard G. Olson, 62, will plead guilty to pushing for a US policy in favor of Qatar shortly after leaving the State Department in 2016, in violation of a “revolving door” lobbying policy
In 2012, President Obama appointed Olson as Pakistan’s ambassador. In 2016, he ended his 34-year tenure at the State Department as Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Olson is accused of taking a job with foreign lobbyist Imaad Zuberi (right) “just before or just after” his retirement in 2016. Zuberi is serving 12 years in prison for helping funnel foreign money into the campaigns of Joe Biden and other US politicians
Federal prosecutors described Zuberi, who turned himself in to jail on May 25, as a political “mercenary” who gave to anyone he felt might help him. Zuberi pictured with Donald Trump
Olson has lobbied US officials and “several sitting members of the US House of Representatives” on Qatar’s behalf, according to a criminal filing filed in federal court this month and first reported by Axios on Wednesday.
Zuberi is only named as “Person 1” in the criminal files against Olson – but has been identified by as an alleged fixer in the secret lobbying scheme.
The prosecutor’s file says he met and “solicited” Olson in 2013 in Islamabad, Pakistan. [Olson’s] Advice and support in his function as ambassador in various business matters” until 2016.
In January 2015, while Olson was still a government official, he reportedly met with Zuberi in Los Angeles and discussed possible work for a Bahraini businessman.
Later that month, Zuberi Olson flew first class to London for $18,829 to meet with the businessman, who was proposing a $300,000-a-year job after he left government, prosecutors said.
While in London, Zuberi paid Olson’s $2,298 ‘luxury hotel’ bill and a $589 dinner.
The criminal intel states that “just before or just after” Olson retired from government, Zuberi agreed to hire him “at $20,000 a month plus expenses” and mailed him his first check to Olson’s company on December 15, 2016 Medicine Bear International Consulting, LLC.
Olson graduated from Brown University in 1981 with degrees in law, society and history. A year later, he joined the State Department and, according to a department biography, served in Mexico, Uganda, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.
Prosecutors say Olson, 62, has met with Zuberi several times abroad, allegedly to try to find work for his departure from government
Imaad Zuberi (center), a venture capitalist and major political donor, is pictured with Paul Ryan (left). He was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pouring foreign money into the campaigns of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham and other US politicians
Former President Barack Obama appointed Olson as ambassador to Pakistan in 2012 after the previous ambassador resigned amid the fallout from the US covert assassination of Osama bin Laden in the country in May.
The Senate confirmed Olson in September. When he left the department in 2016, he was special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As part of his alleged secret lobbying campaign, the ex-ambassador tried to get the US government and lawmakers to side with Qatar in a 2017 dispute with its regional Persian Gulf rivals.
Prosecutors say Olson also lobbied for US Customs and Border Protection to be established at Doha Airport.
Senior former officials are barred from lobbying for foreign governments for a year after leaving office and must disclose gifts such as the alleged $19,000 trip to the UK in 2015.
The Justice Department says Olson broke both rules and he has indicated he will plead guilty.
Last year, politics site Mother Jones reported that Olson traveled to Qatar in June 2017 as part of a secret delegation sent by Trump’s national security adviser HR McMaster and met with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The website reported that emails received showed that Zuberi coordinated, paid for and joined the trip.
Mother Jones reported that at the time Olson was a consultant to Zuberi’s company, Avenue Ventures, and had an Avenue Ventures email address, which was copied into surviving correspondence.
Zuberi, 50, claimed his wrongdoing was limited and asked for credit for years of cooperation with federal and local law enforcement agencies. The political donor pictured with Hillary Clinton and also with then-President Barack Obama
Zuberi, a Pakistani-American who has extensive business connections overseas, has been in frequent contact with a CIA officer over the years and has boasted to associates about his ties to the agency. Zuberi pictured with Steven Mnuchin
Zuberi was collaborating with the Fed during his indictment for illegally funneling foreign cash to senior political campaigns.
He pleaded guilty last year to tax evasion, campaign finance violations and failing as a foreign agent.
Zuberi’s clients have included the governments of Libya, Sri Lanka, Bahrain and Turkey, as well as a Ukrainian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.
Qatar, a small gas-rich monarchy, paid him $9.8 million, prosecutors claimed in court filings.
He stayed in fine hotels, lodged legislators and diplomats in four-star restaurants.
Foreign ambassadors turned to the charming networker and die-hard namedropper to speak in person at Congress.
Prosecutors said the political fixer told his customers pay-to-play was just “how America works.”
His Facebook account was filled with pictures of him alongside the powerful and famous: dining with Hillary Clinton and Robert De Niro and hanging out with Trump’s then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus outside Mar-a-Lago.
Zuberi donated six figures to the Obama-Biden ticket in 2012 and to Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. But when she lost, he quickly switched saddles and donated $900,000 to Trump’s founding committee
“Everyone wants to come to Washington to meet people,” Zuberi said in a 2015 email obtained by The Associated Press, seeking a meeting between the president of Guinea and a powerful congressman.
“We get requests for meetings from all the scumbags in the world, warlords, kings, queens, presidents for life, military dictators, clan chiefs, tribal chiefs and so on.”
He donated six figures to the Obama-Biden ticket in 2012 and to Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.
But when she lost, he quickly switched saddles and donated $900,000 to Trump’s founding committee.
Zuberi claimed he was a long-time source for the CIA and presented evidence of his work for the agency in a closed hearing at his criminal trial.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in February 2021. He was also awarded nearly $16 million in damages and a nearly $2 million fine.