Turkey’s most prominent paid advocate for the extradition of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen has a new gig: Working to ease sanctions on the government of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
Amsterdam and Partners will represent Attorney General Reinaldo Munoz Pedroza after Florida-based law firm Foley & Lardner dropped the Venezuelans last month amid a political backlash in Washington. The firm also transferred $1.05 million it had received from Venezuela to Amsterdam, according to a newly disclosed letter to the US Justice Department.
Foley & Lardner’s contract called for the firm to be paid a total of $12.5 million for help “delisting parties subject to US economic sanction due to their connections to the republic.” The firm was notably tasked with representing Munoz Pedroza in discussions with the Treasury Department’s sanctions office.
Amsterdam and Partners founder Robert Amsterdam has been paid $2.25 million by Turkey to warn US federal and state officials about the alleged threat posed by Gulen and his network of charter schools since 2015. Ankara blames Gulen for the failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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