An "upset" Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania has donated USD 4,000 in campaign contributions to charity after learning that they came from two men accused of being agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, including Kashmiri separatist leader Ghulam Nabi Fai.
Two Lancaster charities each received a USD 2,000 donation from Joseph Pitts soon after he learnt that he had received USD 4,000 in campaign contributions in 2004 from Fai and Zaheer Ahmad.
One cheque went from Pitts' campaign account to the Lancaster Boys & Girls Club and the other to the Water Street Mission in Lancaster, his spokesman Andrew Wimer said. "He was extremely upset," Wimer said of Pitts, a Chester County Republican, who represents part of Berks and all of Lancaster County.
"The two individuals misrepresented where they were getting the money from." The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested Fai, the director of the Kashmiri American Council, while Ahmad is believed to be in Pakistan. Fai and Ahmad are charged with conspiring to act as agents of a foreign country without registering with the US government.
They allegedly funnelled ISI's cash into the US to influence the American policy on Kashmir. The political contributions to lobby US lawmakers would be illegal if Fai and Ahmad were to be found guilty. The men, both naturalised US citizens, are not charged with spying. Fai made about USD 2 million in political contributions since KAC was founded in 1990.
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