Oklahoman: “Friend of a friend” landed OK congressman in ethics probe over free trip
“Friend of a friend” landed Oklahoma congressman in ethics probe over free tripBy Chris Casteel
WASHINGTON — Just two months into his first year in Congress, Rep. Jim Bridenstine received an invitation to visit Azerbaijan, an oil-rich country on the Caspian Sea.
Bridenstine’s invitation came by way of a Turkish man he met at a Washington dinner in March 2013. A month later, he had lunch with the man at a Houston restaurant, then went to a fundraiser at his house, where he collected thousands of dollars from Turkish businessmen and educators.
Early this year, Bridenstine, R-Tulsa, and 10 other U.S. House members found themselves in the midst of an ethics investigation about whether the man, Kemal Oksuz, and some nonprofit Turkish groups in the United States had lied about who paid for the trip to Azerbaijan and neighboring Turkey.
In fact, a shell of a nonprofit organization was apparently set up to funnel money from the national oil company of Azerbaijan, known as SOCAR, to pay for the trip and a convention in the country’s capital, the Office of Congressional Ethics found.