US charges Obama-fundraiser for HSBC, BoA, Citigroup fraud

Hassan Nemazee, a fund-raiser for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, has been indicted for defrauding Bank of America, HSBC and Citigroup out of more than $290m in loan proceeds, US prosecutors said.

In August Mr Nemazee, head of a private equity firm and an Iranian American Political Action Committee board member, was indicted on one count of defrauding Citigroup's Citibank.

The new indictment on Monday, September 21, adds allegations that he defrauded two other banks, Bank of America and HSBC Bank USA, in a similar fashion by falsifying documents and signatures to purportedly show he had hundreds of millions worth of collateral.

The US Attorney in Manhattan and the FBI said he used the proceeds of his scheme to make donations to election campaigns of federal, state and local candidates, donations to political action committees and charities.

He bought property in Italy and paid for maintenance on two properties in New York.

His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. More