A top Republican fundraiser from Beverly Hills pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and lobbying the Trump administration on behalf of a Malaysian financier who is now an international fugitive.
Elliott Broidy, 63, a former deputy finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act in a District of Columbia federal court, according to the Department of Justice.
The DOJ said Broidy conspired with others to influence the Trump administration on behalf of wanted Malaysian financier Jho Low.
“In exchange for millions of dollars, Elliott Broidy and his co-conspirators agreed to secretly do the bidding of a foreign government and a foreign national by lobbying senior U.S. government officials regarding a pending DOJ investigation and the extradition of a foreign national,” said acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the DOJ’s criminal division.
“Although his repeated efforts to influence the administration were unsuccessful, Mr. Broidy never disclosed that he was actually acting on behalf of foreign actors.
“This case demonstrates how foreign governments and principals seek to advance their agendas in the United States by hiding behind politically influential proxies. Such conduct poses a serious threat to our national security and undermines the integrity of our democracy.
“Mr. Broidy’s failure to disclose that he was acting on behalf of foreign principals deceived the American people and prevented government officials from properly evaluating the true source of and motivation for his lobbying efforts.”
According to admissions made in connection with his plea, between March 2017 and January 2018, Broidy agreed to lobby President Donald Trump, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and other high level officials in the Trump administration and the Department of Justice to drop civil forfeiture proceedings and related matters concerning the embezzlement of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a strategic investment and development company owned by the Malaysian government.
For his efforts, Broidy was paid $9 million by an unnamed foreign national, an alleged architect of the so-called 1MDB scheme, federal prosecutors said.
Broidy also agreed to lobby the administration and DOJ on behalf of the foreign national and a People’s Republic of China minister, to arrange for the removal and return of a dissident of the PRC living in the United States.
Broidy concealed from the officials whom he lobbied that he was being paid millions of dollars by the foreign national with the expectation of tens of millions more in success fees. The lobbying campaigns were ultimately unsuccessful.
Broidy “sought to lobby the highest levels of the U.S. government to drop one of the largest fraud and money laundering prosecutions ever brought and to deport a critic of the Chinese Communist Party, all the while concealing the foreign interests whose bidding he was doing,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the DOJ’s national security division.
“His guilty plea is the first step in vindicating the principle of transparency that undergirds the free flow of ideas in our democratic system,” Demers said.
George Higginbotham, a former DOJ employee, pleaded guilty two years ago for his role in the scheme. American businesswoman Lum Davis pleaded guilty in August for her role.
Sentencing for Broidy will be set on a date to be determined.