From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Oct 27 2009 - 17:17:04 EST
US lobbyist accused of violating Sudan sanctions
Tue Oct 27, 2009 7:29pm GMT
* Conduct said to be broad in scope and very serious
* Sudanese business deals brokered in scheme to make money (Adds details)
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. lobbyist has been charged with
violating Sudanese sanctions regulations, acting as an unregistered agent of
a foreign power, money laundering, passport fraud and making false
statements, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
Robert Cabelly, 61, a former State Department employee and the managing
director of a Washington, D.C., consulting firm, was charged in an
eight-count indictment that was unsealed and announced on Tuesday.
According to the indictment, between 2005 and mid-2007 Cabelly performed
work on behalf of Sudan, a country designated by the State Department as a
sponsor of terrorism since 1993, without the U.S. government's required
approval.
"The conduct alleged in this indictment is broad in scope and very serious,"
said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security. "We will
continue to pursue anyone who seeks to violate U.S. sanctions."
The U.S. government has long had in place a trade embargo against the
Sudanese government. In the continuing conflict between the government and
rebel factions in the western region of Sudan known as Darfur, hundreds of
thousands of people have been killed and millions have been displaced.
Cabelly worked on African issues at the State Department in the 1980s and
1990s, during the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George
Herbert Walker Bush and Bill Clinton, a U.S. government official said.
After he left government and became a lobbyist, Cabelly brokered business
deals benefiting Sudan and also provided Sudan with sensitive U.S.
government information, the Justice Department said.
It said Cabelly was accused of engaging in illegal business relationships
with the oil industry in Sudan, operating as an intermediary between
Sudanese government officials and oil company executives and a foreign oil
company.
Cabelly directed the foreign firm to deposit more than $180,000 of his fees
in an offshore account in the Cook Islands in an effort to conceal that the
money had been obtained in violation of the sanctions, according to the
indictment.
Cabelly provided strategic advice to Sudanese officials, including about
economic development and trade, especially about developing the country's
petroleum reserves and its government-controlled airline industry, the
department said.
In October 2005, Cabelly began to be publicly pressured to drop Sudan as a
client, including a letter from a U.S. member of Congress and news reports
critical of his role.
He told the U.S. government in a letter dated Feb. 7, 2006, that he had
ended his representation of Sudan, but according to indictment he conspired
with several unnamed individuals to keep providing services to Sudan and to
make money.
His conspirators included a Sudanese government official who was a former
intelligence officer, a U.S. citizen living in Bahrain and a businessman
from the Middle East.
According to the indictment, the Sudanese official asked Cabelly to get
information about U.S. policy on a specific African country. Cabelly in 2007
provided the information.
He was accused of misrepresenting to U.S. officials the nature of his
relationship with Sudan and the foreign entities doing business in Sudan.
According to the indictment, he maintained two U.S. passports -- one to
enter and exit the country and the other to obtain visas for travel to
Sudan. He failed to disclose his travel to Sudan when he returned to the
United States. (Editing by Vicki Allen)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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