Slobodan Tesic, who the US in December put on a blacklist of alleged human rights abusers and people involved in corrupt activities around the world, has hired lobbing company Sonoran Policy Group Inc in a bid to get his name removed from the list.
The US Foreign Agents Registration Act, FARA, on February 16 registered a deal between Venable LLP, the law firm representing Tesic, and Sonoran Policy Group Inc.
In the document that Sonoran Policy Group filed to FARA, it said that the lobbying company will “assist Venable LLP, with regard to the removal of this firm’s client, Slobodan Tesic, from the List of Specially Designated Nationals [SDN List]”.
As BIRN previously reported, Slobodan Tesic is among 39 individuals and entities on whom the US imposed sanctions on December 21.
“Tesic is among the biggest dealers of arms and munitions in the Balkans; he spent nearly a decade on the United Nations (UN) Travel Ban List for violating UN sanctions against arms exports to Liberia,” the US Treasury Department said a press release in December.
As a result of the sanctions, all of Tesic’s assets in the US were frozen, and US citizens are prohibited from engaging in transactions with him.
Tesic was also on UN’s blacklist for more than a decade, between 2003 and 2013, because of alleged sanctions-busting in Liberia.
The Sonoran lobbying company, which Tesic’s representatives hired, has “extensive ties to [US President Donald] Trump”, according to a CNN report in June last year.
In the report, CNN said that several people who were previously active in Trump’s presidential campaign were later also hired as lobbyists by Sonoran Policy Group.
According to a June 2017 report by Politico, Sonoran Policy Group has also represented another arms dealer who was charged with illegally selling weapons to Libya, although prosecutors dropped the case.
BIRN tried to contact Tesic but he was not available for an immediate reaction.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
