Robert Cabelly, Lobbyist, Charged For Work With Sudanese Regime

A lobbyist was indicted today on charges he violated U.S. sanctions against Sudan by attempting to act as an official agent for the country.

In an eight-count indictment, Robert Cabelly was charged by federal prosecutors with acting as an unregistered agent for the country, as well as passport fraud, money laundering and making false statements.

LobbyBlog reported earlier this month that Cabelly last lobbied for the Sudanese government in 2006, but his contract with the regime ended after heavy congressional criticism.

Cabelly, who served in the State Department during the first Bush and Clinton administrations, could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted. Most recently he worked at consulting firm C/R International.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, Cabelly has been performing work on behalf of the Republic of Sudan, which is listed as a sponsor of terrorism by the State Department, without government approval.

Cabelly allegedly directed a foreign oil company to deposit over $180,000 of fees he received in an offshore account he opened in the Cook Islands. The oil company remains unnamed -- back in 1996, Cabelly's firm was paid nearly $400,000 by Base Petroleum, an oil company owned by international oil fixer Ely Calil, to lobby the Clinton administration on behalf of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha.

Democratic fundraiser Robert Crowe, of the law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, recently dropped his effort to secure a lobbying contract with the pariah regime in Sudan after increasing opposition from human rights activists and lawmakers.

Comments

[Humanrightssupporter]

Has it occurred to anyone that this particular lobbyist appears to have been instrumental in securing peace between North and South Sudan? Also, while most of us, me included, consider $1000 a windfall, for lobbyists, anything under a million is spare change. Perhaps we should ask if this Cabelly guy was actually trying to help resolve the problem? He certainly seems to have the credentials to have abandoned it long ago and gone to work on a more lucrative deal like Libya... (Oh wait, Qaddhafi only killed 270 innocent people in a plane bombing (excluding the La Belle Disco and the UTA flight...l­et's not bothering mention those mishaps on the part of the West's new best friend--I think Herman Cohen and Bob Pelletreau worked on that one--heroes both).