Capitol Police referred BuzzFeed News to the US Attorney's Office and declined further comment. Merriman, who wrote the affidavit, added that he does not believe Alvi 'had any intention to return to the United States.' Though they have a return flight booked for September, the FBI said, special agent Brandon C. The FBI said the children were 'abruptly taken out of school without notifying' the school system and that Alvi had several pieces of luggage with her, including cardboard boxes that 'contained household goods, clothing, food items and $12,400.' On March 5, FBI agents approached Alvi - who was with her three children - at Dulles Airport before she boarded Qatar Airlines, Flight 708, to Doha, on her way to Lahore, Pakistan, according to the complaint.Īwan had previously alerted his employer and Michael Morando, a US Department of Justice attorney who is the prosecutor of the original procurement investigation, of his plans to travel to Pakistan and visit his wife and children, Gowen said. Awan was also ordered to turn over all of his passports.' to 6 a.m., and that he not leave a 50-mile radius of his residence in Virginia. 'The conditions of release are that he receive a GPS monitor, he abide by a curfew of 10 p.m. That $165,000 was then wired to Pakistan in January, as part of a $283,000 transaction to help buy land there, Gowen said.Īwan was released as part of a 'high-intensity supervision program,' said Bill Miller, the spokesman for the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge that he and his wife, Alvi, engaged in a scheme to defraud the Congressional Federal Credit Union by receiving a $165,000 loan in January 2017 based on a property that they declared was their primary residence - but was actually being rented out, according to the criminal complaint.

On Tuesday, Awan was arrested at Dulles Airport before boarding a flight to Lahore, Pakistan. “I have seen no evidence that they were doing anything that was nefarious.”Īfter a six-month investigation, no charges were filed against them regarding their employment as House IT staffers. “As of right now, I don’t see a smoking gun,” Meeks said. We want to make sure everybody is entitled to due process,” Meeks said at the time. “I wanted to be sure individuals are not being singled out because of their nationalities or their religion. Gregory Meeks terminated Alvi as an employee of his office, because the investigation was disruptive, he told Politico, but said he feared Alvi and her family were being targeted because of their Pakistani Muslim background. Politico reported in March that Awan was barred from the House IT networks and that the investigation focused on the equipment of 20 lawmakers.īack in March, Rep. “They said it was some sort of procurement scam, but now I’m concerned that they may have stolen data from us, emails, who knows,” a lawmaker told BuzzFeed News at the time.Īccording to LegiStorm, Awan earned $164,600 in 2016, and Alvi earned $168,300.Īlthough several politicians refused to keep employing his four associates after news of the investigation first broke, Awan, who has worked as an IT staffer for House Democrats since 2004, continued to work for Wasserman Schultz's office. (The five were technically employees of the House, and would work short stints in different members' offices, said Chris Gowen, Awan's attorney.)īuzzFeed News first reported on the criminal investigation, revealing that Awan and his associates had access to the House of Representatives' entire computer network. Back in February, Awan, his wife, Hina Alvi, his brother, and two close friends - were named as the five House staffers being investigated as part of a criminal probe into the theft of IT equipment and possible data theft.

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