Virginia Man Pleads Guilty in CU HELOC Case

A former Congressional IT employee pleaded guilty last week for making a false statement on an application to get a home equity line of credit from a Virginia credit union.

The case captured national headlines when public allegations surfaced that the former employee, Imran Awan, stole U.S. House of Representatives equipment and was involved in unauthorized or illegal use of its computer systems. However, federal prosecutors said they found no evidence that supported the public allegations against Awan, according to a plea deal filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on July 3.

These allegations were posted primarily by right wing media outlets for months. Even President Donald Trump wrote in one of his Tweets in June making unsupported claims that Awan agreed to a plea deal to “hide what is on their Server,” referring to the Democratic National Committee server.

As part of the plea deal, federal prosecutors agreed to drop all felony charges against co-defendant Hina Alvi, who was married to Awan, according to court documents.

Awan admitted that he submitted an online HELOC application to the $964 million Wright Patman Congressional FCU in Oakton for $215,000 in Alvi’s name and falsely stated the house was Alivi’s primary residence and not a rental property. However, Alvi was renting the home to tenants. The credit union’s policy is not to extend HELOCs on rental properties.

CFCU offered Awan a $165,000 HELOC, which he accepted on Alvi’s behalf and transferred the funds to her $120,000 home equity line of credit account at the credit union that she obtained on another home she owned. In January 2017, Awan paid off the HELOCs’ balances.

The HELOC case captured national media headlines after it was revealed that Awan and Alvi formerly worked for Democratic House members, including Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and former DNC chair. Awan and other IT aides had been under investigation by the U.S. Capitol police for alleged double-billing, theft of computers, and access to sensitive computer systems, according to national media reports.

Although prosecutors did not mention any media outlet or claims made by Trump, they made it clear there was no evidence found that Awan violated federal law with respect to the House computer systems.

“Particularly, the Government has no evidence that your client (Awan) illegally removed House data from the House network or from House members’ office, stole the House Democratic Caucus Service, stole or destroyed House information technology equipment or improperly accessed or transferred government information, including classified or sensitive information,” federal prosecutors wrote in the plea agreement to Awan’s lawyer.

Federal prosecutors said they conducted a thorough investigation, which included interviewing 40 witnesses and the inspection and analysis of login and data usage of the House Democratic Caucus servers, computers, hard drives and a review of electronic messages among House employees. Prosecutors also questioned Awan during numerous voluntary interviews.

Awan was fired by Wasserman-Schultz in July 2017 shortly after he had been arrested by federal authorities while he was waiting to board a flight to Pakistan at Dulles International Airport. In March, Alvi flew to Pakistan but she returned in October to face the felony charges of bank fraud, conspiracy, false statements on a credit applications and unlawful money transactions. These charges will be officially dropped after Awan’s sentencing hearing in August.