On DailyMail.com today, Alana Goodman and Shekhar Bhatia provide important new information about Imran Awan, who has been indicted in the House IT scandal, along with his wife Hina Alvi. Awan relatives contradicted reports that the former House IT workers were victims of anti-Muslim discrimination as charged by their main sponsor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. From the story:
“They are not being picked up because they are Muslims. They are being picked up because they did something wrong,” said Syed Ahmed, who is related to them through their stepmother.
“There are possibilities that [Imran] or them might have been selling this information to anybody who is not authorized to have them. For the sake of money they would have done anything,” he added. ‘They were not living an honest life. They were living like they were gangsters.”
The story also describes problems with the Awans’ used car dealership, first reported on by the Daily Caller, the income from which they failed to disclose as House employees. From the story:
Watchdog groups said the fact that the Awans did not disclose these outside jobs in their financial disclosure reports raises questions about whether they were hiding other sources of money.
“When there are such extensive and longstanding violations of disclosure laws, it usually means there is an attempt to cover up underlying criminality or improper activity,” said Tom Anderson, the director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center.
DailyMail.com also provides information that suggests the Muslim Awans are less than devout:
Business associates at the dealership described Imran’s younger brother Abid – who worked for Reps. Gregory Meeks and Ron Barber – as a flashy dresser who always seemed to have money and would drop thousands of dollars at DC nightclubs.
“When he would go to DC, [Abid] would spend $3,000 or $4,000 a night,” said Ajmad Khan, a former business partner. “Abid would say, ‘I work for the government, I don’t care. I have a $120,000 job and my wife is working, my brother’s working, this one’s working, that one’s working.'”
Abid married a blonde Russian-speaking woman named Natalia Sova, who another former business partner described as ‘a good looking young Russian girl.’ Sova later obtained IT jobs working for Reps. Ted Deutch, Emanuel Cleaver, and other members.