TIRANA, July 3 – Prime Minister Edi Rama has come under fire over allegations that he was illegally indirectly involved in funding President’s Obama campaign in 2012 so that he could be photographed with the U.S. president and use the picture to gain electoral advantage ahead of Albania’s 2013 elections.
The issue was put to bed about two years ago, however accusations reemerged after Bilal Shehu an Albanian man living in New Jersey pleaded guilty to helping the illegal funneling $80,000 in campaign contributions from a foreign source to the joint fundraising committee of the President of the United States during the 2012 presidential election, VoA in the local Albanian service has unveiled.
Investigations have shown, Shehu and his wife, Aida, purchased two tickets for a San Francisco fundraiser worth $40,000 each. One of the tickets was used by now-Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama who at the October 2012 event was photographed with Obama. The contributions were made between August 28 and October 26, 2012.
One year later a Republican Party representative, Dana Rohrabacher, called for investigations and hinted that “Rama had used the photo for ‘deceitful’ purposes to imply a relationship with Obama during Albania’s own election, which brought him into leadership.”
Earlier this week, Shehu reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in New Jersey and admitted that “in September 2012, he received $80,000 from a foreign source and provided it to a joint fundraising committee—including the authorized campaign committee of the president—in an effort to disguise the true origin of the money and so that a foreign national could attend a campaign event on Oct. 8, 2012, in San Francisco.”
He admitted that the money was transferred to his bank account from a foreign bank account and that “he provided the money to the fundraising committee and attempted to gain entry into the San Francisco fundraising event with the foreign national, who was denied entry but was allowed to be photographed with the president,’ according to a press release published by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The U.S. Department of Justice underlined that U.S. federal law prohibits foreign nationals making contributions to federal candidates or fundraising committees. U.S. prosecutors have not mentioned the names of the foreign nationals involved in the affair, but during interrogations they codenamed them Foreign National No. 1 and Foreign National No. 2.
Foreign National No. 1 is apparently a Greek citizen whose company has carried out the allocation of funds. Shehu told prosecutors that at the fundraising event in San Francisco he was accompanied by Foreign National No. 2 who was denied entry to the event but was allowed to be photographed with the president.
Albania’s Democratic Party denounced what it called a ‘scandalous affair,’ while Prime Minister Rama dismissed claims that he was the foreign source of Shehu’s campaign contribution. He also talked about what he called a “media manipulation.” A press release issued by the office of Prime Minister Rama noted that “Prime Minister Edi Rama did not attend any electoral event of U.S. President Obama and did not make any payments to attend such events, because the U.S. federal law prohibits foreign nationals to be involved in any electoral campaign in United States of America.”
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Rama failed to say if he was aware of any other person who has made the payment to get the photo opportunity with President Obama. In regards to his acquaintances with Bilal Shehu, the press release said that ‘he is a member of the Albanian community in New York and therefore he met with the Albanian delegation to the U.S. in 2012.”
“There has never been any financial transaction by Edi Rama to be photographed with US President,” the statement added, failing to mention the location of Rama’s meeting with Shehu.
An investigative piece published earlier in 2014 by BIRN investigative agency revealed that at the fundraising day for the Obama campaign, Shehu posted on Facebook a photograph with Obama and another showing him meeting Rama on the same day.
Albania’s opposition Democratic Party has accused Prime Minister Rama of paying $80,000 to deceive Albanians. DP chairman Lulzim Basha questioned the origins of the money at a time when the Prime Minister had officially declared 3,000 Euros in assets. In addition, Basha called on Rama to admit to the bribery and reveal the source of the money as well as shed light on what he promised in exchange to the funds. The opposition leader called on the Prosecutor General to start an investigation on Rama’s involvement to the case.
