Charges against the two former associates, Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin, were unsealed Monday in an Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom. The two men were charged with a conspiracy to violate federal lobbying rules and Alptekin also was charged with making false statements to FBI investigators.
The indictment is further evidence of a broad crackdown on unregistered foreign lobbying growing from the inquiry by Robert Mueller, the special counsel who has investigated foreign flows of money from Ukraine, Turkey and other countries designed to manipulate decision-making in Washington. Mueller referred the Turkey case to prosecutors in Northern Virginia earlier this year.
The investigation into Turkish lobbying began in 2016 after Flynn — a former general and businessman who was advising Trump’s political campaign — wrote an op-ed for The Hill newspaper on Election Day attacking Fethullah Gulen, a cleric living in Pennsylvania whom the Turkish government has accused of helping instigate a failed coup.
The article called Gulen a “radical Islamist” and a “shady Islamic mullah.” The prosecutors began examining whether Flynn and his company — Flynn Intel Group — were working as paid lobbyists for Turkey. Kian helped engineer the lobbying project, which involved trying to persuade members of Congress that Gulen ought to be extradited.
Flynn and Kian also commissioned a lengthy dossier titled “Fethullah Gulen: A Primer for Investigators,” which was written by Thomas Neer, a former FBI agent.
Alptekin is a Turkish businessman close to Erdogan and who helped finance the project.
In 2017, Flynn and Kian filed additional lobbying disclosures acknowledging that the Gulen project “could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey.” They detailed payments to other people and firms associated with the Gulen project.
When he pleaded guilty last December to lying to FBI agents working on the Russia investigation, Flynn also admitted to prosecutors that he had repeatedly violated laws requiring firms to register their work on behalf of foreign clients.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.