FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Imran Awan, the former information technology aide multiple Democratic members of Congress, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, was indicted Thursday on four charges including bank fraud and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.
Also indicted was Awan's wife, Hina Alvi, who also worked as an IT aide in Democratic congressional offices.
The charges don't have a direct relationship to their work in congressional offices, but the criminal charges add to the political heat directed toward their congressional employers, especially Wasserman Schultz.
Awan, 37, and Alvi, 33, were charged with:
_Conspiracy to commit bank fraud, false statements on a loan or credit application and unlawful monetary transactions
_Bank fraud
_Making false statements on a loan or credit application
_Engaging in unlawful monetary transactions
The indictment alleges that that the couple conspired to obtain home equity lines of credit on rental properties that weren't actually residences they lived in. They obtained the home lines of credit in the amounts of $165,000 and $120,000 from the Congressional Federal Credit Union, which has a policy of not extending such lines of credit when the property securing the loans is rental property.
"It was further part of the conspiracy that Awan and Alvi then transferred the funds obtained from those home equity lines of credit to individuals in Pakistan by directly initiating a wire transfer of those funds from Alvi's checking account at CFCU to Pakistan," the indictment states.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington said no arraignment date has been set. The office said it wouldn't comment beyond the indictment.
Christopher Gowen, founding partner of Gowen Rhoades Winograd & Silva, who has represented Awan, said by email late Thursday afternoon that the government didn't share the indictment with him and he had not yet seen it.
