WASHINGTON — Just 11 months ago, Hassan Nemazee ranked as one of the Democratic Party’s premier money men — hosting a $28,500-a-head fundraiser in his luxurious home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
On Wednesday, Nemazee returned to the same $20 million Park Avenue apartment under house arrest, charged with lying about his assets to secure a $74 million loan from Citibank. He is required to wear an electronic security bracelet.
The charges prompted a scramble among top Democrats to distance themselves from Nemazee, 59, who together with his wife has contributed more than $750,000 over the past 15 years to federal candidates and committees, including Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, records show.
Biden and several others pledged to return at least some of Nemazee’s campaign contributions or donate them to charity. The Democratic National Committee, which controls Obama’s campaign chest, was considering doing the same.
The criminal charges mark a dramatic fall for Nemazee, the Iranian-American son of a shipping tycoon who emerged over the last two decades as a major player in Democratic politics and a prominent voice in the debate over U.S. relations with Iran. He is chairman and chief executive of Nemazee Capital Corp., a New York investment firm that had focused on real- estate development, including in Washington’s suburbs.
President Bill Clinton nominated Nemazee in 1999 as ambassador to Argentina, but his name was withdrawn amid objections from Republicans about the propriety of some of his investment activities.
Nemazee became best known in recent years as a major Democratic fundraiser, working for the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and later becoming finance chairman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. During the 2008 election, he served as co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential fundraising efforts and went on to raise more than $500,000 for Obama — making him one of the top bundlers in Obama’s campaign.
Advocates of campaign finance restrictions argue that the case illustrates the perils of relying on major fundraisers such as Nemazee, who play an increasingly central role in modern political campaigns.
