Michael Flynn’s business partner charged with illegally lobbying for Turkey

A former business partner of Michael T. Flynn has been charged with conspiracy and acting as an agent of a foreign government for his efforts to have Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen extradited from the United States.

Bijan Kian made his first appearance in Alexandria federal court Monday morning. According to the indictment, Kian, who ran a lobbying firm with Flynn, conspired with a Turkish businessman to illegally influence government officials and public opinion in the United States against Gulen.

The indictment demonstrates the extent to which Flynn was secretly working to advance the interests of his Turkish clients while publicly serving as a key surrogate to Donald Trump and auditioning for a role in his administration. According to the newly unsealed court document, Flynn was texting and emailing frequently about how to advance the Turkish agenda throughout the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

Negotiations began in July 2016, after the Justice Department told the Turkish government that Gulen could not be extradited without more evidence of wrongdoing. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen, who is living in exile in Pennsylvania, for instigating a failed coup in 2016. Gulen has denied involvement.

“We are ready to engage on what needs to be done,” Kian wrote to the businessman, Ekim Alptekin, on July 27, 2016, according to the court records.

“I just finished in Ankara after several meetings today” with Turkish ministers, Alptekin wrote back to Kian — who also goes by Rafiekian — and Flynn the next month, according to the indictment. “I have a green light to discuss confidentiality, budget, and the scope of the contract.”

The contract drawn up in September 2016 was for $600,000, according to the court records, for which Flynn’s consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group, was expected to “deliver findings and results including but not limited to making criminal referrals” against Gulen.

Flynn, Kian, and Alptekin met with high-level Turkish officials in New York that month, according to the indictment.

“The arrow has left the bow!” Kian emailed Alptekin on Nov. 4, 2016, sharing a draft of an 0p-ed Flynn had written arguing that the United States should not provide a “safe haven” for Gulen. “This is a very high profile exposure one day before the election.”

Flynn’s op-ed was published in The Hill on Nov. 8, the day Trump was elected. It prompted concern in the Justice Department’s national security division and criminal division, where officials wondered why Flynn, aspiring to be national security adviser to the next president, was parroting the talking points of the Turkish government.

Flynn is set to be sentenced Tuesday for lying to FBI agents as part of a special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Prosecutors asked that he receive no prison time , citing his “substantial assistance.” As part his plea, Flynn agreed that he took part in this scheme. But the case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Gillis and Evan Turgeon in the Eastern District of Virginia, not the special counsel.

Alptekin, a confidant of Erdogan, is accused of directing and funding Kian and Flynn’s work, and then lying in U.S. filings about his role. He is charged with the same crimes as Kian, as well as making false statements, but he remains in Turkey.

Alptekin also co-chaired a conference on U.S.-Turkey relations at Trump’s Washington hotel in 2017. While the event was being held, there was a violent clash between Turkish guards and protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence near Dupont Circle.

Flynn Intel Group wired $40,000 to Alptekin’s company in the Netherlands and described it as a “consultancy” fee. In reality, it was a kickback for Alptekin’s pretending he was the client for the work Flynn’s company was doing to promote Turkey’s agenda, according to the indictment, when the Flynn Intel Group knew that its client was really the Turkish government.

Flynn’s company, based in Alexandria, Va., registered retroactively with the Justice Department as a foreign agent in March 2017, disclosing that Alptekin’s firm, Inovo BV, had paid it more than $500,000 for work that could benefit Turkey.

But according to the indictment, Kian and Alptekin lied about the involvement of Turkish government officials in the project, claiming it was done on behalf of an Israeli company seeking to do business in Turkey. Prosecutors say the men falsely claimed that Flynn wrote the op-ed on his own and that Alptekin opposed its publication, and that the $40,000 payment to Alptekin’s firm was a refund for unperformed work.

The Flynn Intel Group also falsely claimed that a meeting in New York with Turkish officials on Sept. 19, 2016, was just for background on the country, prosecutors say.

Flynn left the White House in February 2017 after it was revealed that he had lied about his conversation with a Russian ambassador. But Flynn had informed the incoming White House legal counsel during the transition that he might need to register as a foreign agent, and that apparently raised no alarms — even though he would soon become Trump’s national security adviser. Flynn’s firm is now defunct.

Following a phone call between Erdogan and President Trump last week, Turkish officials told reporters that the U.S. president said possible tax violations by Gulen were being reviewed. But administration officials dispute that there is a justifiable legal case for returning him to Turkey.

A statement released by The Alliance for Shared Values, a nonprofit affiliated with Gulen, said the indictment “shows just how far the Erdogan government will go in breaking US law.”

Kian was allowed out on a personal recognizance bond Monday, with one condition: that he keep the probation office abreast of his movements. Defense attorney Robert Trout told a magistrate judge that Kian is in the process of relocating from California to the D.C. area. Trout declined to comment after the proceeding.

Devlin Barrett, Karen DeYoung, Rosalind S. Helderman, David Fahrenthold and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.