Bijan Kian
Bijan R. Kian, sometimes written Bijan Rafiekian, is an Iranian-American businessman. He has been an executive or board member of many businesses and organizations.
Kian was a member of the Board of Directors of the Export–Import Bank of the United States from 2006 to 2011, after being nominated by President George W. Bush and receiving Senate confirmation.
Kian was a partner of retired United States Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn in the Flynn Intel Group and worked with the incoming Trump administration's transition team on matters relating to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The US Special Counsel's office opened an investigation into Flynn and the Flynn Intel Group, including Kian, in 2017. On December 17, 2018, several months after Flynn entered into a cooperation agreement with the Special Counsel's office, and two weeks after Flynn pleaded guilty in federal court for lying to the FBI, Kian and Kamil Ekim Alptekin were indicted in US federal court. Kian was charged with illegally acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and for lobbying the US government on behalf of Turkey to extradite Fethullah Gülen, who lives in the U.S., to Turkey, where Gülen was later blamed for orchestrating a failed coup in 2016. Kian pleaded not guilty. The trial began on July 15, 2019. Contractors of the intel company gave testimony in the trial of the subject, which revealed the subject had requested surveillance of Gülen supporters, investigations of terrorist connections, and classified FBI documents on Gülen. He was convicted on July 23, 2019. On September 24, 2019 Judge Anthony Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed the indictment against Bijan Rafiekian, citing insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction on either count.
