Unregistered agent

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Washington non-profit Kashmiri American Council allegedly a front for Pakistan's spy agency

Pakistani's spy agency has been accused of funneling millions of dollars to a Washington nonprofit group in a secret effort to influence Congress and the White House.

FBI agents arrested Virginia resident Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, last week and charged him with being an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Fai is the executive director of the Kashmiri American Council. Under the supervision of a senior member of Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, Fai allegedly donated money to political campaigns, wrote newspaper op-eds, organized congressional trips and met with White House and State Department officials.

"I believe that Fai has received approximately $500,000 to $700,000 per year from the government of Pakistan," FBI agent Sarah Webb Linden said in documents filed in federal court in Alexandria, Va.

Officially, the Kashmiri American Council had a much smaller budget and reported no foreign grants, according to Internal Revenue Service documents. Pakistan was financing similar operations in London and Brussels, the Justice Department said.

Pakistan has protested the arrest of Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai. The Pakistani Embassy issued a statement saying the government had no knowledge of such an arrangement. Thursday's government statement says the arrest of Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai of the Kashmiri American Council was an attempt to "defame the just cause of the Kashmiri people."

It did not address the accusation that he was an unregistered agent for Pakistan's spy agency.

A second man, Zaheer Ahmad, was also charged. Prosecutors said he recruited people to act as straw donors who would give money to the Kashmiri American Council that really was coming from the Pakistani government. Ahmad is not under arrest and is in Pakistan, prosecutors said. Both men are U.S. citizens.

Prosecutors said the Kashmiri American Council was being run in secret by the Pakistani government. Fai coordinated his activities with his ISI handlers and often communicated in coded emails, the FBI said. Pakistani officials reviewed Fai's budget and told him what to do and with whom to meet.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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