When Mr. Trump won, Mr. Broidy began aggressively promoting his connections with the new administration among politicians, business people and governments around the world. His defense company won large contracts from the United Arab Emirates and Angola. And Mr. Broidy discussed the possibility of a visit to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private resort in Florida, for an Angolan politician from whom he wanted additional payments.
Mr. Broidy’s admission of guilt relates only to his work on behalf of the Malaysian and Chinese interests.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly said, however, that when convicting Mr Broidy, prosecutors intend to produce evidence related to his efforts to “do business from a Middle Eastern country” which is most likely the United Arab Emirates acts, and on its “efforts to influence US politics” create a second country in the Middle East, “known as Qatar.
Prosecutors also said Tuesday that additional charges “may be filed in this case,” citing “the pending nature of some of the other co-conspirators in this case and their cases”.
Some of Mr Broidy’s employees involved in the scheme with Mr Low have already been charged, including Nickie Lum Davis, a fundraiser who pleaded guilty in August and agreed to work with prosecutors. Another, George Higginbotham, a former Justice Department employee, pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiring to lie to banks over the tens of millions of dollars that he had smuggled into the United States from Mr. Low.
Federal authorities have accused Mr. Low of playing a key role in embezzling billions of dollars from the Malaysian fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB.
Mr. Low has denied wrongdoing.
Mr Broidy’s admission of guilt came the same day it became known that an Asian subsidiary of Goldman Sachs would plead guilty in the US to solving a corruption and bribery case abroad for its involvement in the 1MDB matter.
Mr. Low hired Mr. Broidy to use his connections to end the 1MDB investigation.
Mr Broidy admitted Tuesday that he asked Mr Trump in June 2017 if he would play golf with Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia. Mr Najib was not identified in court, but was in office at the time, planning a trip to Washington, despite being investigated by federal prosecutors for his role in the embezzlement.
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