President Barack Obama’s choice to be the No. 2 official at the Homeland Security Department is under investigation for his role in helping a company run by a brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is being investigated for his role in helping the company secure an international investor visa for a Chinese executive, according to congressional officials briefed on the investigation. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details of the investigation.
Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office named Mayorkas as a target in an investigation involving the foreign investor program run by USCIS, according to an email sent to lawmakers late Monday. The IG’s office said, “At this point in our investigation, we do not have any findings of criminal misconduct.”
The email said the primary complaint against Mayorkas was that he helped a financing company run by Clinton’s brother Anthony Rodham win approval for an investor visa, even after the application was denied and an appeal was rejected.
White House press secretary Jay Carney referred questions to the inspector general’s office, which said the probe is in its preliminary stage and it doesn’t comment on the specifics of investigations.
The investigation does not appear to have any direct ties to Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, but the connection to her brother’s company could provide new fodder for Republican super PACs, which have sought to discredit her record. The former first lady and New York senator is considered a possible contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
The government program involved in the investigation, known as EB-5, allows foreigners to get visas if they invest $500,000 to $1 million in projects or businesses that create jobs for U.S. citizens. Investors who are approved for the program can become legal permanent residents after two years and can later be eligible to become citizens.
According to the email, the investigation of the investor visa program also includes allegations that other officials with the USCIS Office of General Counsel obstructed an audit of the program by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The email did not name any specific official.
The email says investigators did not know whether Mayorkas was aware of the investigation. The FBI’s Washington Field Office was told about the investigation in June after it inquired about Mayorkas as part of the White House background investigation for his nomination as deputy DHS secretary.
Anthony Rodham is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Funds Management LLC in McLean, Va. The firm is one of hundreds of “Regional Centers” that pool investments from foreign nationals looking to invest in U.S. businesses or industries as part of the foreign investor visa program.
In an emailed statement Tuesday, the firm’s general counsel, D. Simone Williams, said the company was not aware of the investigation. Williams said it also was not aware of an investor visa application being denied.
The FBI in Washington has been concerned about the investor visa program and the projects funded by foreign sources since at least March, according to emails obtained by AP.
The bureau wanted details of all of the limited liability companies that had invested in the EB-5 visa program. Of particular concern, the FBI official wrote, was Chinese investment in projects, including the building of an FBI facility.
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent the FBI a lengthy letter Tuesday asking for details of its review of the foreign investor visa program and Chinese investment in U.S. infrastructure projects.
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