Non-DOJ Employee Charged with Aiding and Abetting and Acting as an Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal

On August 17, 2020, a Criminal Information was filed against a non-DOJ employee charging her with one count of aiding and abetting and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal.  Nickie Lum Davis was charged in the District of Hawaii.  According to the Information, from in or about May 2017 through in or about January 2018, Davis knowingly and willfully, without registering with the Attorney General as required by law, assisted in a back-channel lobbying campaign to resolve the DOJ’s investigation into 1Malaysia Development Berhad favorably for a foreign national, and to return a Chinese National to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), all on behalf of the foreign national and the Government of the PRC.  Former DOJ employee George Higginbotham pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to make false statements to a bank in November 2018 in connection with the same criminal scheme.  If convicted, Davis will be required to forfeit a sum of money representing property, real or personal, derived from proceeds traceable to the violation.  The investigation is being conducted by the OIG’s Cyber Investigations Office and the FBI.