Imran Awan case: Lawmaker calls 'massive' data transfers from Wasserman Schultz aide a 'substantial security threat'
Fox News | 4:29
A Republican lawmaker on Tuesday described the “massive” data transfers on government servers by a former IT aide to Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as “a substantial security threat.”
“These facts, standing alone, indicate a substantial security threat,” Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry said of the Imran Awan case during an informal hearing of Republican House members on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
“These facts, standing alone, indicate a substantial security threat."
- Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.
Awan pleaded not guilty in September to multiple federal charges including bank fraud and conspiracy. A grand jury had returned an indictment in August in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charging Imran Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, with a total of four charges.
Perry, a member of the Homeland Security subcommittee on cyber security, said Tuesday that the House Office of Inspector General tracked the network usage of Awan and his associates on House servers and found that a “massive” amount of data was flowing from the networks.
Awan and other IT aides for House Democrats had been on investigators’ radar for months over concerns of possible double-billing, alleged equipment theft and access to sensitive computer systems. Most lawmakers fired Awan in February, but Wasserman Schultz had kept him on until his arrest in July.
According to Perry, more than 5,700 logins by the five Awan associates were discovered on a single server within the House and 5,400 of those logins appeared unauthorized. That server, Perry said, belonged to then-Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, who is now attorney general in California."
More
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10 ... hreat.html33
Conservative Lawmakers: Imran Awan Scandal ‘Cries Out’ for House Investigation
byAdam Shaw10 Oct 2017303
Breitbart
"Conservative lawmakers held an unofficial meeting Tuesday on the scandal surrounding Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-FL) former IT aide Imran Awan amid fears of a major security breach, with one lawmaker saying it “cries out” for a House probe.
Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) told five fellow lawmakers of the Taxed Enough Already Caucus and three specialists on the topic at the meeting that House leaders need to do more:
This at least cries out for a serious investigation when you got people who have money problems hanging out with and getting a loan from someone who is known to hang out with Hezbollah and they have access to the server for dozens and dozens of Democrat officials in the United States Congress, I don’t know, but that’s a movie right there I think
Awan has been charged with counts of bank fraud in relation to moving money to Pakistan after taking out allegedly fraudulent loans. Other members of his family, including his wife and two brothers, are part of the investigation as they were also hired by Democratic offices.
Awan, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, was arrested trying to board a flight with his family to Pakistan in July. Most lawmakers had already fired him over concerns about practices after federal investigators raised red flags in January and banned him from the House network, but Wasserman Schultz kept him on until July.
While Democrats such as Wasserman Schultz have dismissed it as part of a right-wing “circus,” even the Washington Post — while decrying right-wing “conspiracy theories” — admitted that it “highlights urgent and persistent questions about how well Congress safeguards computer equipment and data.”
“And yet we’re having six guys show up to talk to three guys who’ve been following this story … where the heck is the House investigation, that’s what I want to know?” Jordan said in the hearing.
The hearing also featured Daily Caller investigative reporter Luke Rosiak, who broke much of the story over recent months, and Tom Fitton, head of Judicial Watch. Both agreed with lawmakers that there appear to be enough unanswered questions and red flags over the story that require further House investigation.
According to the Post, Awan came over to the U.S. from Pakistan at 17 after winning a green card through the lottery system, eventually becoming a citizen and being hired as an IT specialist in the office of Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL). He soon became popular and was working part-time for a number of offices, while recommending family members for roles at the Hill."
More:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... stigation/33
Former Congressional IT pro Awan wiped phone before FBI arrest
by Teri Robinson, Executive Editor
SC Media US
An IT specialist formerly employed by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who is now at the center of a loan fraud conspiracy, suspected of pilfering computer equipment and transferring copious amount of data from a House server wiped his iPhone of data shortly before his arrest at Dulles Airport in July.
Imran Awan was waiting to board a flight to Pakistan to join his wife, an alleged co-conspirator in the fraud plot, who had traveled to the country months earlier, when FBI agents nabbed him. At a hearing Friday, according to Forbes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Mirando told the court that the phone “had been wiped clean just a few hours before” Awan's arrest in rebuttal to claims by the IT pro's attorney that “Awan had recently bought the phone, so of course it didn't have any data on it.”
Awan, who had worked for more than 24 Democratic members of Congress over a 13-year period, stands accused of filing illegally for a home equity loan on rental property, which violates the Congressional Federal Credit Union rules. It was only after Awan was arrested at the airport that Wasserman Schultz fired him – other members of Congress had fired him in February when the probe was revealed and Awan's access to the House IT system was yanked. Wasserman Schultz has come under heavy criticism for keeping Awan onboard, raising the hackles of ethics watchdog groups and other critics.
“For several months, Wasserman Schultz refused to remove Awan from house payroll even though he was barred from the House computer system which would presumably prevent him from performing any reasonable IT work,” Matthew G. Whitaker, executive director wrote of the right-leaning Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) wrote in a letter last summer to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) Chairman Doc Hastings, calling it “contrary to the House Ethics Rules for Waserman Schultz to continue to pay Awan with taxpayer funds even after he was barred from the House computer system and could not perform his duties, and was also under criminal investigation.”
https://www.scmagazine.com/former-congr ... le/699278/33
‘Dire Consequences’: Wife Of Indicted Dem IT Aide Says He ‘Threatened To Harm The Lives’
The Daily Caller | 9:10 PM 10/09/2017
The indicted husband-and-wife team of former IT aides to Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz sat directly across from each other at the defendants’ table in federal court Friday in Washington, D.C., but refused to look at each other.
Even as they are co-defendants in a U.S. case, Imran Awan’s own wife, Hina Alvi, has become the latest person to accuse him of fraud, filing papers against him in Pakistani court on Sept. 13, records obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation show. Alvi said Awan “threatened the complainant of dire consequences, he also threatened to harm the lives of family of the complainant if she intervenes.”
The couple were in U.S. court to face bank fraud charges related to sending money to Pakistan around the time they learned they were under investigation for abuses related to their work managing IT for members of Congress. Awan was arrested at Dulles Airport in July attempting to board a flight to Pakistan.
Wasserman Schultz, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, and other House Democrats have vigorously defended Awan, claiming the Capitol Police might be drumming up charges out of Islamaphobia.
Respondent has contract a second marriage on 17-08-2015 with one Mst. Sumaira Shehzadi alias Sumaira Siddique… without obtaining prior permission. Rather he mentioned himself as bachelor in… marriage certificate, he falsely declared that he has no wife or biological children at the time of contracting second marriage. This act of the respondent was shocking for the complainant and she asked the respondent about his second marriage on which he became furious while admitting the same and said he has no need to obtain permission from the complainant…
He further said furiously that the complainant has no right or power to restrain him from second and even third marriage. Furthermore, the respondent threatened the complainant of dire consequences, he also threatened to harm the lives of family of the complainant if she intervenes into the affairs of the respondent.
The Pakistani legal petition named as the second wife is a woman who records show told Virginia police she felt like Awan was keeping her “like a slave.”
More:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/09/imran ... -of-fraud/ 33