WASHINGTON — The state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan secretly funded an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference at Baku on the Caspian Sea in 2013 for 10 members of Congress and 32 staff members, according to a confidential ethics report obtained by The Washington Post.
Three former top aides to President Barack Obama appeared as speakers at the conference.
Lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000, according to the ethics report. Airfare for the lawmakers and some of their spouses cost $112,899, travel invoices show.
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR, allegedly funneled $750,000 through nonprofit corporations based in the United States to conceal the source of the funding for the conference in the former Soviet nation, according to the 70-page report by the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent investigative arm of the House.
The report reflects the most extensive investigation undertaken by the ethics office, which was created seven years ago in response to scandals on Capitol Hill, including lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s illegal funding of lawmakers’ trips.
The lawmakers who took the trip were Reps. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla.; Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y.; Danny Davis, D-Ill.; Rubén Hinojosa, D-Texas; Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas; Leonard Lance, R-N.J.; Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M.; Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; Ted Poe, R-Texas; and then-Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas. Clarke is a member of the Ethics Committee.
Another lawmaker, Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, attended as part of a separate congressional delegation, and his expenses were not paid by the conference, according to the report.
The nonprofit corporations allegedly filed false statements with Congress swearing that they were sponsoring the conference.
The findings have been referred to the House Committee on Ethics for investigation of possible violations of congressional rules and federal laws that bar foreign governments from trying to influence U.S. policy.
Tom Rust, chief counsel and staff director for the Ethics Committee, declined to comment. Kelly Brewington, a spokeswoman for the Office of Congressional Ethics, also declined to comment.
The conference, “U.S.-Azerbaijan Convention: Vision for the Future,” took place on May 28 and 29, 2013. During the previous year, SOCAR and several large energy companies sought exemptions for a $28 billion natural gas pipeline project in the Caspian Sea from U.S. economic sanctions being imposed on Iran. One of SOCAR’s partners was the National Iranian Oil Company.
The congressional investigators could not determine whether lawmakers used their official positions to benefit SOCAR or the pipeline project. They also found no evidence that the lawmakers or their staffers knew that the conference was being funded by a foreign government.
The pipeline has long been an important U.S. policy objective because it would bolster European security by offering an alternative to Russian gas.
Congress had approved two sanctions bills containing passages that exempted the pipeline project, which Obama signed into law in August 2012 and January 2013. On June 3, 2013, five days after the Baku conference, Obama signed an executive order assessing economic sanctions against Iran that also exempted the project.
The Washington Post reported about the trip at the time, in an article noting that three former Obama political advisers — Robert Gibbs, Jim Messina and David Plouffe — spoke at the conference, which was attended by current and former members of Congress.
But no information surfaced at the time about the alleged $750,000 payment from SOCAR to the nonprofits. Ethics investigators obtained a wire transfer showing that SOCAR sent the $750,000 to the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, a Houston-based nonprofit. SOCAR’s legal counsel told the investigators that the money involved “dues” that were “intended to be used as funding for the convention.”
Several lawmakers on the trip say they had no idea it was paid for by SOCAR.
Shaylyn Hynes, a spokeswoman for Poe, said Wednesday that the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, another Houston-based nonprofit, told Poe’s office and the Ethics Committee before the trip that it was the sole sponsor of the event.
Hynes said Poe did not learn how the trip was paid for until he was contacted last year by the Houston Chronicle, which published a story in July about the trip.
Hinojosa said in a statement that he thought the purpose of the trip was to strengthen U.S. relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan, which is rich in oil and natural gas.
Poe, Hinojosa and other lawmakers said they have cooperated with the investigation. However, the report said Poe was among those who did not fully cooperate or did not acknowledge receipt of their request for information.
Oklahoma’s Bridenstine said he made good-faith efforts to follow House rules on gifts. He reported on financial disclosure forms that he received two rugs appraised at $2,500 and $3,500. In a July 2013 letter to the ethics panel, Bridenstine said he wanted to donate the more expensive rug to the House clerk’s office.
According to the report, three other lawmakers who took the trip also declined to cooperate with the ethics office or did not respond: Jackson Lee, a member of the Homeland Security Committee; Lance, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee; and Meeks, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
