Obama Fundraiser Arrested in $74 million Citibank Fraud

08-26-2009 • The Philadelphia Bulletin

Hassan Nemazee, chairman of Nemazee Capital Corp. and a fundraiser for President Obama and Hillary Clinton, was arrested on charges that he tricked Citigroup Inc. into lending him as much as $74 million using phony documents. Nemazee got the loan by telling Citibank that he held accounts with hundreds of millions of dollars that could serve as collateral, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said today in a statement. He used fake addresses and phone numbers controlled by him to mislead the bank, prosecutors said. The accounts “either never existed or had been closed years before Nemazee submitted the documents referencing those accounts,” Bharara said in the statement. Nemazee, 59, repaid the loan to Citibank yesterday, a day after he was interviewed by FBI agents, prosecutors said. The interview took place at Newark Liberty International Airport as Nemazee was checking in for a flight to Rome.