California man pleads guilty in scheme to defraud Afghan government of $100M

A California man pleaded guilty on Tuesday over his role in a scheme to defraud the Afghan government out of more than $100 million.

Saed Ismail Amiri, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced.

The scheme involved the Afghan company Assist Consultants Incorporated (ACI), prosecutors say.

Unsealed court documents revealed that Amiri, ACI employees and others engaged in a scheme in 2015 and 2016 to win a bid to construct five electric power substations in Afghanistan.

The perpetrators submitted false work history and fraudulent supporting documents to meet the required criteria for the contract, prosecutors said.

The Associated Press previously reported on Amiri’s guilty plea.

Specifically, the group falsely claimed that it was a subcontractor to a prime contractor for a cement factory in Uganda and a textile company in Nigeria.

Upon further investigation, however, it was discovered that the prime contractor was a fake company that ACI invented and controlled. Additionally, ACI never worked to construct a substation in Africa, and the Ugandan cement factory and Nigerian textile company did not exist, prosecutors said.

When the national power utility of Afghanistan asked ACI for supporting documents to verify the company’s work history, Amiri sent additional false or altered documents, including photographs, false bank records, a fake letter claiming to be from a Ugandan government official and the supposed subcontract to work on the Uganda substation, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Amiri then lied to law enforcement in the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, claiming that he only learned about the bid the previous month, according to prosecutors. Shortly after, he withdrew ACI’s bid.

Amiri is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 10. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.