Trump-linked lobbyist turns from Gulf Arabs to more toxic clients
Robert Stryk’s Sonoran Policy Group is hemorrhaging both clients and employees.
A lobbying firm that made a fortune promising Gulf Arab clients access to President Donald Trump is looking to ever more controversial work amid a dizzying turnover of customers and staff.
The Sonoran Policy Group stopped working for Kuwaiti oil magnate Saud Abdul Aziz al-Arfaj on Dec. 31, making him one of more than a dozen clients terminated since the firm took off in the wake of Trump’s election. The termination follows the end of other lucrative contracts with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and a shift toward clients that are radioactive in Washington, as firm founder Robert Stryk seeks to keep the money flowing after making almost $14.5 million over the past three years.
Last month, Sonoran drew bipartisan condemnation after getting paid $2 million as a subcontractor to Foley and Lardner representing the government of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. Foley ended the contract under pressure, but there is no indication Sonoran returned the money.
Just weeks before that, Sonoran signed two contracts worth a total of $2.2 million to represent Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and the daughter of Angola’s former president. Dos Santos turned to the firm just one day after being contacted by journalists investigating allegations that she siphoned millions of dollars from the continent.
