An effort by the United Arab Emirates to convince the United States with the help of a wealthy real estate investor to name former congressman Stephen Stockman as U.S. ambassador to that country during Donald Trump's presidency unraveled with the lawmaker's 2017 arrest on fraud charges, prosecutors said.
U.S. prosecutors made the statement in a filing late on Thursday in Brooklyn federal court ahead of next month's scheduled criminal trial of Tom Barrack, a billionaire real estate investor and fundraiser for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Barrack, charged with acting as a UAE agent without notifying the U.S. attorney general as required, has pleaded not guilty.
