- Libya taps US law firm to help recover billions in assets stolen by Gadhafi
- Haiti opposition candidate hires Colorado PR firm for presidential run
- Ukraine gas lobby jumps on Belarus plane incident to press for Nord Stream 2 sanctions
- SGR ends work for Morocco, Kuwait’s Agility
- TheGroup DC taps two new principals for Caribbean work
Libya taps US law firms to help recover billions in assets stolen by Gadhafi
The Libyan government has tapped a pair of US law firms for help recovering billions of dollars of assets stolen by the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his cronies and stashed around the world.
Read the story here.
New lobbying filings
Americas
Caribbean: TheGroupDC has registered two new principals, Dwayne Bolton and Eriade Williams, on its contracts with the governments of Barbados, Bermuda and Trinidad and Tobago. Bolton served as principal deputy assistant for congressional and intergovernmental affairs under President Donald Trump‘s energy secretaries Rick Perry and Dan Brouillette, while Williams previously served as deputy chief of staff and legislative director to former Rep. Robert Brady (D-Penn.).
Haiti: Haitian businessman Reginald Boulos has hired Denver-based public relations firm Novitas Communications for help with his presidential run. The firm led by Republican strategist Michelle Lyng is being paid $5,000 per month for “supporting fundraising” from the Haitian diaspora and is expected to produce materials in French and Haitian Creole for Boulos. Former Colorado state representative Joe Mikloski (D-Denver) has also registered as a PR agent for Boulos. And Art Estopinan, a longtime chief of staff to former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), told Foreign Lobby Report he would be terminating his years-long human rights lobbying for Boulos and may be joining the campaign.
Haiti: In other Haiti news, Sorini, Samet & Associates distributed draft legislation regarding the “extension of certain trade benefits for Haiti.” The firm represents the Association des Industries d’Haiti (Haitian Industry Association), or ADIH. The trade-focused firm is lobbying for the extension of the HOPE and HELP trade preference programs, which support textile and apparel exports to the US. Although the program expires Sept. 30, 2025, documents shared with Congress states that action is needed immediately to attract foreign investment as the country’s economy tries to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asia
Bangladesh: BGR Government Affairs emailed Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on behalf of the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington to object to their coverage of the arrest of investigative journalist Rozina Islam. Deputy Chief of Mission Ferdousi Shahriar reiterated the government’s line that Islam was arrested for stealing official documents and not for her coverage of government corruption.
Europe
Ukraine: Yorktown Solutions, which lobbies for Ukraine’s gas industry, highlighted calls by US and European officials to sanction companies building Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Europe after Russian ally Belarus diverted a civilian flight to seize a government critic. Pipeline foes linking Belarus to Nord Stream 2 sanctions include British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, British parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Tugendhat, Polish European Parliament member Radoslaw “Radek” Sikorski, US Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and US Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.). President Joe Biden waived Nord Stream 2 sanctions earlier this month.
Middle East
Kuwait: SGR Government Relations & Lobbying terminated its registration on behalf of Kuwaiti global logistics company Agility Public Warehousing Company KSCP on Oct. 1, according to a new lobbying filing for the six months through March. SGR represented Agility in a decade-old defamation lawsuit brought by Kuwaiti rival KGL. The case arose from allegations of KGL business links to state-owned Iranian entities. Both Agility and KGL hold US government contracts in the Middle East.
Morocco: SGR has also terminated its registration on behalf of Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, effective Jan. 27. The disclosure was expected as SGR had been acting as a subcontractor to Republican firm JPC Strategies, which Morocco dismissed after Joe Biden won last year’s election. SGR still lobbies for the Embassy of Qatar as a subcontractor to Venable.