UAE Adviser, Child-Sex Offender Pleads Guilty To Illegal Campaign In US Politics

A convicted child-sex offender and adviser to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), George Nader, has pleaded guilty to helping the UAE pump millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions into the U.S. political system during the 2016 presidential election.

Nader, who is a Lebanese American businessman, was charged with a sexual offence.

He was also charged along with seven other people in December with conspiracy to hide the source of excessive contributions made by groups supporting Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

According to the prosecutors' sentencing memo on Sunday. It said; "Nader conspired to hide the funds out of a desire to lobby on behalf and advance the interests of his client, the government of the United Arab Emirates."

"He received the money for the illegal donations from the UAE government."

This makes it the first time that the United States Government has explicitly accused the UAE of illegally seeking to buy access to candidates during a presidential election.

As much as five million dollars may have been paid by the UAE to gain political access and influence.

It was alleged by prosecutors that Nader took his instructions from the UAE Crown Prince, Mohamed Bin Zayed and that he regularly updated the 60-year-old on the progress he was making in getting close to Clinton.

Despite pouring millions into the Clinton campaign, Nader was part of a much wider UAE scheme to gain access and influence in U.S. politics and to hedge its bets over who would win the 2016 U.S election. He eventually worked his way into the Trump campaign on behalf of the UAE.

Federal agents arrested him in June 2019 at John F Kennedy International Airport after he got off a flight from the UAE. He was charged with possessing a dozen images or videos of child pornography.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised service for transporting a 14-year-old girl into the country for sex and child pornography.