Leid Stories—The Awan Brothers: A Different Kind of Family Business—08.09.17

On July 24, Imran Awan, a Pakistan-born owner of a U.S.-based IT business with dozens of congressional accounts, was about to board a flight back home but instead was arrested by federal agents at Dulles International Airport on bank fraud charges and taken into custody.

Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, had falsified information on a bank loan for a rental property and then wired the money to two people in Pakistan unrelated to the transaction, the federal complaint charged.

Thus began the most recent chapter in a “family” business with a history of operating outside the law. At the time of his arrest Awan was the target of a federal investigation into double billing his congressional accounts, stealing government equipment, and hacking accounts of his clients, who included several congressional leaders.

Who is Imran Awan? What, exactly, is his business? How did he get to be at the center of one of the nation’s biggest scandals? Who is covering it up?

George Webb, a citizen journalist with Crowdsource the Truth, joins us today. He has been following the Awan story, which he says is part of a larger story of endemic corruption.