Hassan Nemazee, Top Democratic Party Fundraiser Gets 12 Years

Hassan Nemazee, top Democratic party fundraiser to the likes of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others, was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in prison for bank fraud:

Nemazee, 60, a New York resident pleaded guilty in March to multiple charges stemming from over a decade of defrauding three major banks, scamming them out nearly $300 million.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein, who imposed the sentence, ordered Nemazee to pay restitution of more than $292 million to the defrauded banks and to serve three years of supervised release after his prison time..

Nemazee admitted before Judge Stein that he duped Bank of America, Citibank and HSBC out of $292 million in deceitful loans from 1998 to 2009 "to finance his posh life and create a reputation as a political kingmaker," United States Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Court documents indicated that Nemazee has made "numerous donations to the election campaigns of federal, state and local candidates." He has been a major Democratic fundraiser for more than a decade, according to Federal Election Committee records.

Nemazee is a former finance chairman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign and held the same post for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid. On his website, he claimed to have been associated with numerous "business, charitable, international and political organizations," although many of the links validating his affiliations have been disabled.

Democratic Party Fundraiser Sought to Defraud Bank To Repay Fraudulent Loan

The hits keep on coming for Hassan Nemazee, the Democratic party fundraiser who was arrested last week on attempting to defraud Citibank out of $74 million. He's now being implicated in a scheme to defraud another bank in order to raise the funds necessary to repay the fraudulent Citibank loan.

In a letter filed this week in Federal District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors said that Mr. Nemazee borrowed the money to repay Citibank from another bank, using a similar scheme that involved fake documents and forged signatures.

On top of that, they said, Mr. Nemazee defrauded a third bank using “similar false and fraudulent information.” In that case, they said, the outstanding loans to Mr. Nemazee totaled more than $100 million.

In the letter, the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York did not identify the two other banks that it said were defrauded, and no new charges have been filed.

Mr. Nemazee, 59, a New York investor, has been a major player in Democratic fund-raising circles, with ties to President Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. He was one of several national finance chairmen for Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and was a prodigious fund-raiser for her. And the Obama campaign credited him with raising more than $500,000 on its behalf.

In accusing him of lying about his assets to obtain the Citibank loan, prosecutors said he used fake documents to show he had collateral worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr. Nemazee has not entered a plea to the sole charge against him, bank fraud, and his lawyer, Marc L. Mukasey, had no comment on the new allegations. Mr. Nemazee was released on $25 million bond and ordered to be confined to his apartment and subjected to electronic monitoring.

Democrats Turn Swamp of DC Corruption Into Swimming Pool

The politics of corruption continues and the Democrats are up to their necks in these kinds of arrangements. In fact, as Hot Air notes, Hassan Nemazee makes Norman Hsu look like a small time crook.

Hassan Nemazee, chairman of Nemazee Capital Corp. and a fundraiser for President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, was arrested on charges he used phony documents to trick Citigroup Inc. into lending him as much as $74 million.

Nemazee got the loan by telling Citibank he held accounts with hundreds of millions of dollars that could serve as collateral, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said today in a statement. The financier used fake addresses and phone numbers controlled by him to mislead the bank, prosecutors said.

The accounts “either never existed or had been closed years before Nemazee submitted the documents referencing those accounts,” Bharara said in the statement.

Nemazee, 59, repaid the loan to Citibank yesterday, a day after he was interviewed by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, prosecutors said. The interview took place at Newark Liberty International Airport as Nemazee was checking in for a flight to Rome.

In an interesting turn of fate, Nemazee is being represented by Marc Mukasey, who is the son of Michael Mukasey, an Attorney General under President Bush.

So, who is Nemazee? He had some key ties to major Democratic party figures, including three candidates for President: John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. He also was involved in the DSCC, which is run by Sen. Chuck Schumer (via Ace of Spades).

For Democrats who claimed that they would drain the swamp of corruption in Washington, we're finding that they haven't so much drained the swamp, but flooded it turning it into a swimming pool for their excess.

In fact, in a related item, Rep. Charles Rangel was caught underreporting assets once again to the tune of $500,000.