Lunch, travel, meetings: Where did Kosovo's money for lobby go to the US?

From July last year until January this year, the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora (MPJD) has paid two companies about $277,000 for lobby in the US.

In addition to the amount paid under the lobby deal, companies owned by Aferdita Rakipi and Avni Mustafaj have declared additional expenses.

Most of the expenditures declared on the Foreign Agents Recording Act (FARA) of the US Department of Justice have been used for food, in what they have declared to be working meetings, and trips.

Most of the meetings were held in various restaurants in Pristina, even though in the lobby contract they would reportedly offer strategic advice and representation of MPJD “within the United States”.

Under the year-long contracts signed on June 26th last year, Rakipi and Mustafaj would be paid out of 147 thousand euros for US lobbiing by the MPJD for “avance of bilateral relations between the US and the Kosovo Government”.

Much of this fee was accepted in July and December last year. The rest of the pay is estimated to have been accepted earlier this year, but the data is not yet public.

U.S. lobbies are forced to deliver data every six months for their activities, according to the US Department of Justice's Foreign Agents Record Act (FARA).

For this reason Rakipi and Mustafajt companies Aferdita Rakipi Communications and Ambal LLC have all their expenses published from July last year until January of this year.

Their contracts have been valid by the end of June of this year. MPJD didn't tell about REL if the contract with these two companies has been continued and has not answered any of the questions on this subject.

Neither have Mustafaj, Rakipi and the Government of Kosovo provided answers until the moment of the article's publication.

The companies of Aferdita Rakipi and Avni Mustafaj have never had another lobbiing contract registered in FARH. Documents published in this agency show that during July 2023, 2024, they had achieved a total of six contacts.

Rakipi declared two contacts, while Mustafaj four. The virtual meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar, have both declared it held on 13 October.

Kosovo has also had lobbi contracts in the past. Since 1992, political parties and government institutions have spent millions of euros on lobby in the US.

In most cases, contracted lobbies have been known American lobbie companies, such as Podesta Group and Ballard Partners.

According to documents published on the FARH website, within a six-month period, Ballard Partners had contacted a total of 238 U.S. institutions for lobbi, while Podesta Group 216.

The published online data also tells of the additional expenses they had declared. While the amounts for which the contracts were bound were larger, the declared expenditures were smaller than in the case of Rakipi and Mustafaj.

The lobbi deals were signed about a month after tensions in northern Kosovo were raised, when local Serb residents were protesting Albanian mayors.

Rakipi, born in Michigan, U.S.A., had recognised Kosovo Foreign Minister Donika Grovalla, even before the lobby contract. Ten years ago, Gervala had labeled it a reading challenge through a post in her Facebook account.

Mustafaj, born in New York, U.S.A., has been a key person at the Albanian-American National Council (NAAC), as well as a member of the Germin organisation in Kosovo, which deals mainly with diaspora issues.

Mustafaj still figures as a board member in Germin, an organisation where co-founder was Lisa Gashi, now deputy minister of foreign affairs and Diasporas.

According to Germin's description, Mustafaj has led American delegations to negotiations on the Kosovo issue in Rambouillet, France, in 1999. Rakipi also attended, which was also part of the NAAC.

In March 1999, the two attended a meeting with then US President Bill Clinton at the White House.

In 2012, Mustafaj, as the executive director of the NAAC, has also met with then-Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. / REL/