By Umar Farooq</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AA) – A high-ranking member of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to use money funded by the Azerbaijani government to sponsor a trip for congressional members, the Justice Department said Monday.</p> <p>Kemal Oksuz, who changed his name to Kevin when he received American citizenship, pleaded guilty to one charge of concealing information to the House of Representatives Committee on Ethics.</p> <p>He was part of a scheme that took members of Congress on what was said to be a privately funded trip to Azerbaijan in 2013, when in reality the money was coming from the government of Azerbaijan.</p> <p>"Oksuz admitted to, in truth, orchestrating a scheme to funnel money to fund the trip from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), the wholly state-owned national oil and gas company of Azerbaijan, and then concealed the true source of funding, which violated House travel regulations," the Justice Department said in a statement.</p> <p>Oksuz was previously detained in Armenia in August and extradited to the U.S. pursuant to a warrant regarding committing fraud to Congress.</p> <p>He served as the president of the Houston-based Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE), an umbrella organization for FETO's many non-profits in the U.S.</p> <p>Oksuz will be sentenced Feb. 11 in Washington DC and the investigation was conducted by the FBI.</p> <p>He is also being sought on FETO membership charges in Turkey.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
