Azerbaijan's state oil company paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover the travel expenses of 10 US lawmakers, as well as silk scarves, carpets and other gifts, channeling the funds through nonprofit corporations, the Washington Post reported, citing a confidential report.
As revealed by the House of Representatives' independent committee on ethics, SOCAR financed all travel expenses to the 2013 convention for lawmakers and 32 members of the House of Representatives' staff, according to the newspaper.
The May 2013 "US-Azerbaijan Convention" in Baku was held a year after SOCAR and several other companies asked Congress to exempt the $28 billion gas pipeline project from US economic sanctions against Iran.
That company "allegedly funneled $750.000 through US-based nonprofit corporations to hide the source of the conference's funding," the Post writes.
The pipeline has long been an important goal of American policy because it would offer Europeans an alternative to Russian gas.
Lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses and gifts, including Azerbaijani carpets worth $2.500 to $10.000, according to the Ethics Committee report. Travel receipts show that the cost of air transportation totals $112.899, the American newspaper reported.
"Congressional investigators were unable to determine whether lawmakers used their official positions to benefit SOCAR or the pipeline project," the Post writes about the investigation, which it says is the most extensive investigation of the ethics committee since it was formed in 2008.
Listi also wrote that they "also found no evidence that lawmakers or their staff knew the conference was being funded by a foreign government," and said the ethics committee had approved the trip.
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