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A cousin of former top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin was convicted of fraud and sent immediately to jail on Tuesday.
In addition to fraud, Omar Amanat is accused of trying to tamper with potential evidence by allegedly asking his brother to “delete all of my emails from the yahoo site” because he was afraid of a subpoena.
Amanat, who did business with the man known as the “Russian Donald Trump,” was reportedly determined to be a flight risk by a judge.
The Daily Caller News Foundation has more details on the indictment:
The indictment charges that Amanat convinced people to invest millions of dollars in a tech company called Kit Digital and lied to them to hide the fact that the company was hemorrhaging cash. “The evidence of their criminal schemes was so overwhelming that Amanat actually tried to fool the jury by introducing fake emails into the record as exculpatory ‘evidence’ in this trial,” acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said in a statement. Prosecutors said he re-purposed millions of dollars of the company’s money for his own personal use.
In a curious blog post, Amanat responded to the charges:
“The facts of this case will all be made plain to see shortly. You’ve only seen snippets. You’re only seen what they want you to see. Stay tuned…”
While Abedin has no apparent ties to the case, her name did reportedly come up during the trial when jurors were barred from hearing a phone call in which Amanat mentioned her name. Amanat also described Abedin as his first and “closest” cousin, according to Page Six.
The judge agreed with defense lawyers agreed that the conversation was "irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial,” according to The Associated Press.