Foreign Lobby
  • About
  • Sign in
  • Sign up
  • Contact
  • Hot Topics
    • Regional conflicts
    • Energy
    • US-China tensions
    • Business & trade
    • Sanctions
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Middle East
  • Biden transition
  • Top contracts
  • Trending
  • Daily Digest
No Result
View All Result
  • Hot Topics
    • Regional conflicts
    • Energy
    • US-China tensions
    • Business & trade
    • Sanctions
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Middle East
  • Biden transition
  • Top contracts
  • Trending
  • Daily Digest
No Result
View All Result
Foreign Lobby
No Result
View All Result
Home Daily Digest

Ecuador VP candidate hires lobby firm for pre-election visit to Washington; Kazakhstan civil society lobbies on anti-corruption sanctions; former Lockheed Martin exec to be paid $80,000 to lobby on Turkey’s F-35 participation : Wednesday’s Daily Digest

by Julian Pecquet
March 24, 2021 5:33 pm
in Daily Digest
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail
  • Ecuador VP candidate hires lobby firm for pre-election visit to Washington
  • Kazakhstan civil society lobbies on anti-corruption sanctions
  • Former Lockheed Martin executive to be paid $80,000 to lobby on Turkey’s F-35 participation
  • Rep. Sherman presses Treasury Secretary Yellen on tax treaty with Armenia

Ecuador VP candidate hires lobby firm for pre-election visit to Washington

Ecuadorian presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso campaigns on March 26, 2017 in Quito / By Fotos593 via Shutterstock

One of the vice presidential candidates in Ecuador’s 2021 election is turning to the US for COVID-19 assistance and a political boost ahead of the country’s runoff next month.

Physician-turned-politician Alfredo Borrero has tapped Washington-based consulting firm Moonlight International to help coordinate meetings during his visit to the US this week “in order to set up preliminary relationships for COVID-19 pandemic response in Ecuador,” according to Moonlight’s lobbying registration with the US Justice Department. Moonlight is representing Borrero pro bono on issues related to “public health interests of Ecuador, foreign aid and cooperation policies of private and public organizations in the US” during his trip, which began Tuesday.

Although Borrero’s trip to the US is officially focused on Ecuador’s COVID-19 response, its political optics are impossible to ignore.

Read the story here.


New lobbying filings

Africa

Ivory Coast: JWI (Jefferson Waterman International) disclosed $441,000 in payments from the government of the Ivory Coast in the six months through February. During that period the firm offered “political consulting” and “security organizational advice” to the government of President Alassane Ouattara, contacting presidency officials to “guide” the country in a “pro-western manner.” JWI has represented the country since 2010. The firm’s CEO Charles Waterman, a former CIA official and vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council, is the sole registered agent on the account.

READ MORE:
Ivory Coast election rivals launch US lobbying war

Asia

Kazakhstan: A loose coalition of Kazakh civil society groups has hired a former congressional aide to lobby Congress and the Joe Biden administration for sanctions against corrupt actors in the central Asian country. The Coalition of Civil Society of Kazakhstan — also known as Dongelek Ystel — has retained Alexander Beckles, a former legislative director to former Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), to lobby on “democracy, stability and prosperity in the region of Kazakhstan, as well as issues of finance, including rules and governmental programs related to anti-money laundering, international sanctions, and anticorruption.” The contract is for $40,000 per month for an indefinite amount of time. This is the first time Beckles registers his firm, Alexander Beckles LLC, under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), although he registered to lobby for the governments of Burundi and Uganda as a consultant Scribe Strategies & Advisors in 2015 and for the Embassy of Guinea as a managing director for Scribe in 2019 (Scribe’s contracts with Guinea and Uganda remain active). He was also briefly personally registered to lobby on US-Lebanese relations in 2019 on behalf of Romania-based Italian businessman Mario LaSala, a consultant to the BB Energy Trading company of London.

Beckles declined to identify who had hired him or how he had come to work with the Kazakh activists after a lobbying career focused largely on the domestic US drug industry. However the Germany-based leader of Dongelek Ystel’s foreign office, Serik Medetbekov, told Foreign Lobby Report that the coalition was formed around 18 months ago and represents a broad assembly of groups and individuals that oppose the endemic corruption fostered under former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his successor Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Medetbekov said money stolen from Kazakhstan has had a corrupting influence on institutions in the West and that the US and allied governments should do more to go after illicit Kazakh gains in their own countries. “We oppose the people … who worked for this regime, stole the money, ran to the West and now pretend that they are in the opposition to the regime,” Medetbekov said. “For us it’s impossible — if somebody steals money on the street in New York, police will be there in a few minutes. But other persons are breaking American law and nobody is taking care of it. This is the point.”

READ MORE:
Kazakhstan lawyer hires ex-journalists for ‘fair and balanced coverage’ of $500 million energy suit
Agent for Kyrgyzstan’s new president signs $1 million lobbying deal with eye toward US-Israel-Gulf aid partnership
Uzbekistan launches PR campaign to lift cotton boycott

Middle East

Turkey: Washington law firm Arnold & Porter has signed an $80,000 contract with former Lockheed Martin executive Stephen Williams as part of the firm’s campaign to help the Turkish defense industry rejoin the F-35 fighter jet program. Williams and his Alexandria-based firm Pentagon Strategies will “work in support of” Arnold & Porter’s contract with Ankara-based SSTEK Savunma Sanayi Teknolojiler (Defense Industry Technologies) and the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB), the government office that manages Turkey’s defense industry. Foreign Lobby Report first reported news that Williams had registered his firm under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) on Tuesday. SSTEK hired Arnold & Porter last month to “advise on a strategy for the SSB and Turkish contractors to remain within the Joint Strike Fighter Program,” as we first reported Feb. 18. Arnold & Porter is to be paid $750,000 for six months to provide “strategic advice and outreach to US commercial partners and stakeholders in the program.”

A former regional president for continental Europe for Lockheed Martin, the stealth jet’s manufacturer, Williams is well-known within the F-35 community. he left Lockheed Martin in the summer of 2016 to become CEO of the North American subsidiary of Danish defense and aerospace company Terma, which says it makes “more than 70 mission-critical parts for the F-35” including advanced lightweight composite components and radar electronics. Williams founded Pentagon Strategies in Virginia in March 2020.

The Donald Trump administration announced in July 2019 that it had removed Turkey from the multi-nation F-35 program over the country’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems. The Pentagon has since clarified that it will continue to depend on Turkish defense contractors for key components through next year. Turkish defense officials told the Turkish military news site www.turdef.com that the purpose of Arnold & Porter’s engagement was to ensure that Turkey’s rights are protected after it paid for delivery of four F-35 aircraft that remain in the US.


Caught our eye

Armenia: The American National Committee of America (ANCA) celebrated a lobbying win this week when Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to negotiate a tax treaty with Armenia during Tuesday’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ANCA has long call for renegotiating the existing Double Tax Treaty with Armenia, which was negotiated with the now-defunct Soviet Union and is no longer recognized by Armenia. In 2018, then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pledged to devote staff resources to exploring a new tax treaty with Armenia following a congressional letter signed by 31 House members led by Sherman and Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.).

BREAKING: Earlier today, Senior House Financial Services Committee (@FSCDems) Member Rep. @BradSherman calls on @USTreasury Secretary @SecYellen to honor past Treasury commitments to negotiate a U.S.-#Armenia Tax Treaty – a long-time priority of the @ANCA_DC. pic.twitter.com/txrddjBUaJ

— ANCA (@ANCA_DC) March 23, 2021

Venezuela: Senate Foreign Relations member Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday calling for the US to end what he called the “misguided” ban on diesel fuel swaps with Venezuela, the Associated Press reports. The wire service points out that the letter follows heavy lobbying by Spain’s Repsol SA and Italy’s Eni SpA, both of which carried out swaps with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.

Correction: This post was updated on March 25, 2021 to reflect Alexander Beckles‘ past lobbying activity.

Julian Pecquet

Julian Pecquet

Julian Pecquet is the founder and editor of Foreign Lobby Report, the comprehensive news site tracking foreign influence operations in Washington. Prior to launching the site on June 1, 2020, Julian was a reporter and editor for Middle East news site Al-Monitor for six years. There he initiated lobbying coverage that won national awards from the Online News Association and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW). Before that he was a Global Affairs reporter for The Hill and a newspaper reporter in Florida for many years. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @JulianPecquet.

Related Posts

Daily Digest for Monday, June 1
Daily Digest

Mexican governor accused of drug ties hires US law firm to battle leaks; McConnell chief of staff lobbies for Egypt, Korea; Former Rep. Denham lobbies for Chinese-owned video game company: Monday’s Daily Digest

by Julian Pecquet
April 19, 2021
0

Mexican governor accused of drug ties hires US law firm to battle leaksMcConnell chief of staff lobbies for Egypt, KoreaFormer...

Read more

Kenya hires Democratic firm as it seeks to build on Trump trade talks; second ex-lawmaker lobbies for Libya; Rohingya advocates end lobbying for Myanmar sanctions: Friday’s Daily Digest

April 16, 2021

UAE climate envoy launches US PR push; senior USAID official lobbies for Haiti; crisis communicators join Ethiopia account: Thursday’s Daily Digest

April 15, 2021

Afghan group lobbies against Sept. 11 troop withdrawal; Armenian, Greek diasporas urge FAA to nix Turkish satellite launch; Japan embassy signs $282,000 extension with Ogilvy: Wednesday’s Daily Digest

April 14, 2021

Chinese smartphone giant lobbies against US blacklisting over alleged military ties; Uyghurs sign first lobbying contract; Saudi Arabia looks West after Midwest lobby push: Tuesday’s Daily Digest

April 13, 2021
Load More
Next Post
Qatar hires former chief of staff to Senate power broker Manchin

Qatar nabs former Biden, Meeks aides in fifth lobbying hire since US election

  • Hot Topics
  • Regions
  • Biden transition
  • Top contracts
  • Trending
  • Daily Digest

© 2020 Foreign Lobby - Developed by PaywallProject.

No Result
View All Result
  • Sign in
  • Sign Up
  • Hot Topics
    • US-China tensions
    • Human rights
    • Elections
    • Business & trade
    • Regional conflicts
    • Energy
    • Campaign Finance
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Middle East
  • Trending
  • Daily Digest
  • Contact

© 2020 Foreign Lobby - Developed by PaywallProject.