A criminal suspect in an investigation into a major security breach on the House of Representatives computer network has abruptly left the country and gone to Pakistan, where her family has significant assets and VIP-level protection, a relative and others told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.
Hina Alvi, her husband Imran Awan, and his brothers Abid and Jamal were highly paid shared IT administrators working for multiple House Democrats until their access to congressional IT systems was terminated Feb. 2 as a result of the investigation. Capitol Police confirmed the investigation is ongoing, but no arrests have been reported in the case.
The Awans are “accused of stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network,” according to Politico. Many of the Democrats who employed the Awans are members of the House Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. (A list of potentially compromised members is listed below.)
Their positions gave them access to members’ emails and confidential files. In addition, Imran was given the password for an iPad used by then-Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat. The five came to the U.S. from Pakistan.
Since the investigation became public, the Awans have abruptly moved from longtime homes in Lorton and Springfield, Va.
Imran and Hina recently withdrew their children from their schools, according to members of the Holly Elementary and Lorton Station Middle school communities. Multiple people said Hina told them she was headed to Pakistan where the family has significant property.
Real estate records show Hina listed both the Lorton house and an apartment she owns for sale.
“I came to know from one of their relatives that Hina Alvi and her daughters are moved to Pakistan, Hina Alvi saying ‘we have moved here in Pakistan permanently,’” the Awans’ stepmother, Samina Gilani, told TheDCNF.
Imran, who has worked for Wasserman Schultz since 2005, “boasted he had many contacts in USA and Pakistan also. He also said that if [I called even] the whole United States police on them,” he would not face consequences, Gilani told TheDCNF. “Imran Awan threatened that he is very powerful” and would use that power to have people kidnapped in Pakistan, she said in court documents.