Tony Podesta made a staggering amount of $500,000 lobbying for a criminal Chinese firm. that was convicted
The Chinese firm, ZTE Telecommunications, was convicted for sending illegal telecom equipment to Iran.
From The Daily Caller
The seriousness of the illegal sales to Iran were so extreme and continued for so long — from 2010 to last year — the Department of Justice (DOJ) imposed a record $1.19 billion fine on the ZTE Telecommunications company, making it the largest penalty ever imposed in a U.S. sanctions case.
The Chinese firm hired the Podesta Group, one of Washington’s biggest and best-connected lobbying companies in the nation’s capital, in January 2016. ZTE retained Podesta’s personal help as negotiations intensified for a final resolution with DOJ during the final year of President Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House.
The Shenzhen-based company pleaded guilty on March 7 to violating a 22-year-old ban on shipments to Iran, including “conspiring by illegally shipping … U.S.-origin items to Iran, obstructing justice and making a material false statement,” according to the DOJ.
The Department of Commerce also released other documents showing ZTE executives had “ongoing projects in all five major embargoed countries — Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Syria and Cuba.”