Duke Cunningham's Ziyad Abduljawad

ok - i promised you a post the other day about the financer of the Duke's 2 trips to Saudi Arabia. You'll remember that Duke-briber Kontogiannis was also on the one of the trips (he got picked up in Athens along the way). in the last couple of days, the story about Kontogiannis has become more visible, but there has been little interest in the person who financed the gig - Ziyad Abduljawad.

i haven't come up with anything major - but here goes...

Booman has this:

"Ziyad Abduljawad, founder and chairman of San Diego-based PLC Land Co., paid for Cunningham's two trips to Saudi Arabia, each at a cost of more than $10,000. Cunningham has described Abduljawad as an acquaintance who shares his interest in improving U.S.-Saudi relations.

Kontogiannis "went as a friend of Duke's," said Harmony Allen, Cunningham's chief of staff. "That's the extent of it. Duke asked him to go as a friend. I'm not sure if (Kontogiannis) had a special interest (in visiting) Saudi Arabia or not."

It was unclear who paid for Kontogiannis' trip.

Who is Ziyad Abduljawad? According to San Diego Reader, Ken Calvert joined Cunningham on the December 9 trip. On Calvert's disclosure form, Calvert states "Due to security risks, I stayed in a private home where meals were provided. Below is my best estimate about expenses." He estimated his expenses at $10,790, which happens to by the same amount as Cunningham. The Reader also reported:

Ziyad, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Newport Beach, is a member of the kingdom's wealthy Abduljawad family, which has its fingers into everything from home development in Orange County to high-tech electronics ventures. Reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that Ziyad controls the shares of an outfit called Ellumina, LLC, which in turn has been in another venture with BridgeWest, LLC, run by Massih Tayebi, a big donor to the cause of San Diego Republicans such as Mayor Dick Murphy.

The venture the Reader is referring is in regards to the large number of stocks Tayebi and Ziyad own in San Diego's SYS Technologies." (link)

and

Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) took two trips to Saudi Arabia in April and December that were paid for by Ziyad Abduljawad, the founder and chairman of PLC Land Company, a multi-million dollar real estate company in Cunningham’s district, according to financial records released by the House yesterday. (link)

Duke's district is Rancho Santa Fe - pop 3000 rich people.

Ziyad donates $ to politicians - mostly to californians (Rohrabacher, Issa, Duke) - but also $2k to Ameri in OR, Nick Rahall in WV and kyl in arizona and DeLay - as well as $20k to the NRCC

(update: the $20k donation to the NRCC was in june 2005 - just 7 months after the election, and just 3 weeks after the Duke story broke. His only other donation to them was $1000 in 2003. who asked him to donate the money to the RNCC, and what did he get in return?)

Nick Rahall is the only democrat - he is ranking Democrat on the Resources Committee, and also serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and usually wins elections 80/20. It's not obvious why he needs financing from around the country.

Kyl is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security. He is also a member of the Finance Committee, where he chairs the Subcommitee on Taxation and IRS Oversight.

Goli Ameri was a repug money machine and "in the summer of 2005, President Bush appointed Ameri as the head of the United States' delegation to the United Nations General Assembly" - she's an iranian, working for Bolton! (update: kathy in the comments notes that 'Goli Ameri also ran a slime campaign against Oregon's Congressman David Wu--it backfired & he was re-elected.')

The Booman quote above refers to SYS Technologies - Ziyad was an investor, alongside two other successful Rancho Santa Fe business folk - mostly different software businesses who work in the defense industries. They all donate the maximum allowed to the Duke (and Ameri), and do business with each other. It's a little difficult to work out the finances of SYS, but it looks as though Ziyad and his 2 neighbours were initial investors in the company (and perhaps the sole investors)

I haven't been able to get much of a glimpse into ziyad's business operations (don't blame me - i dare you to research a company called PLC!) His real estate business appears to have had some setbacks lately - with a major shopping center going into receivership. He was also involved in a lawsuit where he was sued by some texans - described thusly:

LOS ANGELES – August XX, 2002 – Powerhouse lawyers; billionaires; expensive real estate; accusations of conspiracy, fiduciary breaches, and fraud; and $17.5 million at stake. In a trial that had all the elements of a movie of the week and a cast of characters to match, marquee litigators Ed Green and Charles Kenworthy and a team from Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory LLP, pulled out a defense jury verdict win for its clients in Wilson/JMO’Q, Ltd., a Texas limited partnership, v. PLC Commercial, Inc., et al.

There's more here

Incidentally, one of Ziyad's partners who was also sued was "Mohammed Abduljawad, owner of an affiliated company." we know that ziyad comes from a wealthy arab family - so it's not surprising that he is involved with someone of the same family name - and i'm aware of the dangers involved with googling arabic names - but i was able to identify two people called "Mohammed Abduljawad." One, 'a prominent Libyan banker', 'loyal to Col. Qadhafi' was the head of a massive Libyan oil company called Oilinvest, the other is a terrorist on the official US lists.

The oil company is massive, with a retail network across half of europe. The 'terrorist' of the same name appears to be in trouble for terror financing, although i'm not sure. (incidentally, it touches on areas familiar in sibel's stoy - banking in cyprus and/or (?) malta and whatnot.)

In considering all this, we need to remember that Kontogiannis has a very odd role - laura says that he is acting like a lobbyist - throwing money around and so on - and he's also been the beneficiary of the softer side of the judiciary. twice. laura wonders if he is 'working for' the cia or the fbi - as well as why he was in saudi arabia with the duke on ziyad's dime. Kontogiannis was previously involved in selling passports and whatnot in greece. here's my earlier post on Kontogiannis - there was something weird going on with the timing of the pay2play - i speculate that the transactions that we are aware of are parts of different transactions.

Joseph Canon irresponsibly suggests that Konty might have provided visas for the 911 hijackers.

Laura also says:

"Kontogiannis knew boats, how to move and launder money, set up front companies, and seemed to have some transport and logistics companies. "

i think she's overdoing the navy/boat thing - but the other tricks are part jack abramoff, part sibel edmonds.

speaking of sibel, on a side note, laura irresponsibly asks:

" One theory -- could Kontogiannis have been used by some US government agency (let's say the CIA -- again, pure speculation), even while being simultaneously investigated by another (the FBI, etc.)?"

This is interesting re sibelgate because we know that sibel was aware that both the CIA (BJ) and the FBI were spying on perle, feith and grossman. i previously asked whether they were investigating them jointly or separately - i hadn't considered the possibility that one agency might have been working with perle et al, and the other agency was independently spying on them. i wonder which was which...