Debbie Wasserman Schultz Tech Staffer Arrested Trying To Flee Country
Image by Getty Images
A technology worker in Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office was arrested at the airport on Tuesday, as he attempted to flee the country to Pakistan, amid a bank fraud investigation.
The feds nabbed Imran Awan at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. as he prepared to board a flight to Lahore, Pakistan, reported Politico. Charged in federal court, he’s accused of defrauding the Congressional Federal Credit Union of $165,000 by lying to obtain a home equity loan and then wiring the funds to his native Pakistan.
His wife Hina Alvi already left for Pakistan, and prosecutors said they expected her to stay there. The couple both worked for almost two dozen Democratic legislators as information technology specialists, though Wasserman Schultz fired Awan on Tuesday.
Awan’s attorney denounced the charges as a right-wing plot to take down his client. “This is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney’s Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim,” Chris Gowen told Politico.
Wasserman Schultz resigned as Democratic National Committee chair last year amid allegations that she favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the primaries.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
The Forward is free to read but not free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
