NEW YORK, Dec 10; A Pakistani-origin surgeon, who was part of jailed Kashmiri separatist Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai’s network, has pleaded guilty to fraud charges for concealing transfer of millions of dollars from the Pakistani Government and ISI to fund lobbying efforts related to Kashmir in the US.
Orthopedic surgeon Abdul Razaq, a member of the Board of Directors of a city-based charity Society for International Help, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Department of Treasury by taking fraudulent tax deductions as part of a decades-long scheme to conceal the transfer of at least USD 3.5 million from Pakistan Government to fund lobbying efforts in America related to Kashmir, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said.
Razaq faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison when he is sentenced in July next year.
In a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, he admitted to taking charitable deductions for money that he routed through the Society for International Help, as well as another charity—the Kashmiri American Council —even though he was reimbursed at least in part for these deductions in Pakistan.
Razaq also admitted to being part of Fai’s financial network of donors, which Fai used to conceal that the KAC was funded with at least USD 3,500,000 from the Pakistan’s military intelligence service ISI.
Fai was sentenced to two years in prison in March 2012 for conspiracy to defraud the US by concealing the transfer of millions of dollars from ISI to fund his illegal lobbying efforts on Kashmir. (AGENCIES)
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