Debbie Wasserman Schultz Tech Staffer Arrested Trying To Flee Country

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By Daniel J. Solomon July 26, 2017

A technology worker in Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office was arrested at the airport on Tuesday, as he attempted to flee the country to Pakistan, amid a bank fraud investigation.

The feds nabbed Imran Awan at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. as he prepared to board a flight to Lahore, Pakistan, reported Politico. Charged in federal court, he’s accused of defrauding the Congressional Federal Credit Union of $165,000 by lying to obtain a home equity loan and then wiring the funds to his native Pakistan.

His wife Hina Alvi already left for Pakistan, and prosecutors said they expected her to stay there. The couple both worked for almost two dozen Democratic legislators as information technology specialists, though Wasserman Schultz fired Awan on Tuesday.

Awan’s attorney denounced the charges as a right-wing plot to take down his client. “This is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney’s Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim,” Chris Gowen told Politico.

Wasserman Schultz resigned as Democratic National Committee chair last year amid allegations that she favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the primaries.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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