The largest scandal of past 10 years about bribery of congressmen is likely to erupt in the USA. Ankara and Baku covered all the expenses of the American legislators’ gifts and trips in purpose of lobbying their own interests. The latter supported laws in favor of Turkey and Azerbaijan in the US Congress in their turn. It was stated in the report on the Ethics Office of the US Congress and in the article of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (OCCRP), known as the “Panama Offshore”.
The Ethics Office of the US Congress is an independent body in charge of investigating the misbehavior of US lawmakers, and it has fully proved two facts of bribery. Another 200 cases can be investigated. The main case is the trip of the US congressmen to Baku in 2013 to the US-Azerbaijan forum “A Vision of the Future”. According to the report, the tour of the American legislators was a pleasure trip with expensive gifts included. About a year ago, many American newspapers wrote about the case, however, the report itself was still closed to the public, and the Ethics Committee of the Congress stated that everything was legal.
Recently the Ethics Office in Congress announced the final report, wherein denying the statement of the Congress Committee. The details of the document were cited on its website by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (OCCRP).
“In May 2013, the Azerbaijani government transferred through the state oil company SOCAR 750 thousand dollars to the Texas non-governmental organization” Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan “(AFAZ), – the OCCRP investigation results. It also distributed money funds to small public organizations which promote Turkey’s interests in the United States. A few weeks later 9 members of the US Congress landed in Baku making the tour with Azerbaijani money. Chic dinners, fireworks, gifts in the form of handmade carpets, crystal tea sets, silk scarves and CDs with the praise of the President of Azerbaijan – all this was free for the US legislators. A Washington diplomat noted, that the visit of American congressmen became the largest in the history of the Caucasus and, as it turned out to be, the most unusual violation of the ethical standards of the Congress over the past decade. This was acknowledged even by the Ethics Office in Congress, by which the report was published.
According to the document, the government of Azerbaijan and SOCAR secretly financed the tour for 9 US congressmen and dozens of their assistants, moreover, non-governmental organizations deceived the Ethics Office in Congress that they themselves paid for the conference. Moreover, the Ethics Committee of the Congress should investigate such cases, but it hampered the investigation and tried to hide it from the public.
An ethics expert in Congress, Creig Holman, told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that he had not seen it since Abramof’s time. For bribing the congressman, Congressional advisors and White House officials, this American lobbyist was imprisoned in 2006 for 9 years and fined $ 21 million.
“And what do we have now? – says Creg Holman. – A foreign government involved in the fraud of the US Congress and the public. At the same time, the Ethics Committee tried to bury the report of the Office, which shows how the federal laws were impudently violated.”
The Azerbaijani government and SOCAR are not the only foreign structures that bribed Congressmen with trips and gifts. The USA Today publication found that since 2008 congressmen have made 200 trips for the money, which went through Turkish non-governmental organizations and among the sources of it various groups in Turkey were noted.
Azerbaijan had a strong reason to try to “raise” its image in this way, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The Caspian state ranks fifth in the world in terms of censorship and the third in corruption. And in the Congress, they are considering the issue of imposing sanctions against Baku. By their strength, they are comparable to those that were introduced by the “Magnitsky list” against Russia.
Therefore, the publication of the report of the Ethics Office in Congress can be compared with the effect of a bomb that has been broken if the Department of Justice of the Legislature gives it a move and passes it to the FBI. On the one hand, the scandal can positively resolve the fate of sanctions against Azerbaijan. On the other hand, American congressmen can initiate criminal cases. And as the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (OCCRP) states Baku and even the Ethics Committee of the Congress are participating in the scandal.
“When in January 2015 the Ethics Office started the investigation of the congressmen’s visit to Azerbaijan, the Ethics Committee did not object. Two months later, however, he demanded to suspend the investigation and pass the evidence to the Committee. The reason is that the congressmen themselves are conducting the investigation. “
At the same time, as noted in the OCCRP, it was found that in May last year the head of the Ethics Committee Charlie Dent received at least $ 8 thousand from five individuals connected with Kemal Oksuz. This person, according to the investigation, helped non-governmental organizations deceive the Congress about the purpose of the trip and sources of funding from Azerbaijan.
The Ethics Office in Congress noted that the pressure of the Ethics Committee was unprecedented. And after the congressmen refused to release the report, the Office itself published it on its own website. The document comprises 76 pages of the report and thousands of pages of attached documents.
According to the American Center for Responsible Politics Opensecrets, the trip of congressmen paid off for Baku. Azerbaijan not only increased its image, but also enlisted the support of Congressmen to attract Western investment in oil and gas production in the Caspian Sea.
Thus, Republican Jim Brydenstein began to promote in Congress an amendment according to which the Pentagon would have to issue a report on the strategic importance for the US of extracting natural gas in the Caspian Sea. And six other congressmen who went to Baku, signed under the resolution on greater access to Azerbaijani oil and gas reserves. And this is despite the fact that American analysts consider Baku’s role in the energy security of the West to be exaggerated.
Meanwhile, three more congressmen who also visited Baku lobbied for the exclusion of the Iranian sanctions from the construction of a gas pipeline from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea. The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was one of the partners of the SOCAR state-owned company in Baku. And sanctions could bury the project. “It will strengthen European security by offering an alternative to Russian gas,” insisted the congressmen who traveled to Baku. And they achieved their goal. “On June 3, 2013, five days after the congressmen’s visit to Baku, Barack Obama signed a decree assessing economic sanctions against Iran. The document said that the gas pipeline project is not subject to sanctions,” the Washington Post noted. The congressmen themselves even then claim that they did not know that their trip was paid by the Azerbaijani government, so that they lobbied for the interests of Baku.