The Qatari Connection: Joey Allaham, Elliot Broidy & The Mysterious E-Mail Hack
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Joey Allaham’s life story is a captivating narrative that weaves together elements of family heritage, culinary innovation, international diplomacy, and political intrigue.
His journey began in Damascus, Syria, where he was born into a family of skilled butchers. However, in 1992, his family decided to leave their homeland, seeking a new life in the United States. A year later, in 1993, Allaham settled in New York City, a melting pot of diverse cultures and opportunities. It was here that he would lay the foundation for his future endeavors.
Joey Allaham became widely recognized for his contributions to the world of luxury kosher dining. His most celebrated establishment, Prime Grill, earned the distinction of being New York City’s premier high-end kosher steakhouse. Zagat consistently named it the city’s top kosher restaurant for eight consecutive years, a testament to its culinary excellence.
Beyond Prime Grill, Allaham introduced three other upscale kosher restaurants: Solo, a Mediterranean-Asian fusion restaurant; Prime KO, a Japanese steakhouse; and Prime at the Bentley. He also ventured into gourmet food retail with Prime Butcher Baker, offering a diverse range of Ashkenazi and Sephardic culinary delights.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, Allaham ultimately failed miserably in the restaurant business. Sources have told the Jewish Voice that Allaham had a less than favorable reputation with his contemporaries in the culinary industry and that many of his business activities were highly questionable.
The unidentified source said, “Allaham was known to be a bad guy in many respects and it comes as no surprise that he could not make it in the restaurant business. He created many enemies and questions began to arise as to whether his practices were unscrupulous.”
With no restaurant business to attend to, Allaham was at loose ends as to what he could do to earn a livelihood. With no background or experience in any other field, he did not have anything to fall back on.
As luck would have it, his vast network of contacts were able to connect him to the right people. Allaham’s journey took a significant turn when he became involved in political investments and affiliations with the American Jewish community, particularly concerning the State of Qatar. Although he had absolutely no experience in the field of international diplomacy or political engagement, he was hired by Qatar to be their liaison in the United States. His job required him to make connections between influential Americans and the Qatari government, with the ultimate goal of raising issues important to Qatar to former President Trump and other well placed individuals.
He collaborated with prominent government officials, international figures, and business leaders through his restaurant businesses, establishing connections that would shape his role in stateside battles tied to the Gulf crisis and other geopolitical incidents.
Working alongside Republican strategist Nicolas Muzin, )founder of Stonington Global, a specialized law and consulting firm based in Washington), Allaham was a foreign agent for Qatar and both were paid handsomely by the Gulf nation for making the kind of stellar connections with wealthy and influential American Jewish leaders who could help to influence former President Trump’s policies as they pertained to Qatar.
To that end, the Qatari government paid Allaham over $3 million and he used Qatari money to sponsor free trips to the Gulf nation for a group of American Jewish leaders and elected officials. Moreover, Allaham paid the individuals anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 to incentivize them to make the kind of connections in the United States that his handlers in Qatar needed so desperately.
However, Allaham’s involvement in political affairs also raised questions about foreign influence and lobbying. While Allaham asserted that he arranged meetings and distributed charitable donations as goodwill gestures, he did not register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent of Qatar during the period he worked for the country. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires individuals engaged in lobbying or public relations work on behalf of foreign governments or entities to register their activities. Allaham’s failure to do so raised questions about compliance with legal and ethical standards.
Nick Muzin, on the other hand, is a figure whose career has traversed the worlds of politics, diplomacy, and the American Jewish community. Known for his strategic acumen and ability to facilitate connections, Muzin has played significant roles in various domains, including serving as a senior advisor to Senator Ted Cruz, a potential university president at Yeshiva University, and a foreign agent for Qatar.
As part of Qatar’s campaign to build positive relationships and garner support among individuals who held influence within the United States, Allaham organized trips to Doha, where these American Jewish leaders could meet with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and other government officials.
Several influential American Jewish leaders participated in the trips organized by Allaham and Muzin. Among those who accepted the invitations were, Alan Dershowitz, a well-known legal scholar and advocate. Dershowitz is recognized for his involvement in high-profile legal cases and his strong support for Israel. Also traveling to Qatar through the efforts of Allaham were Mort Klein, the head of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). Klein has been an influential voice in pro-Israel advocacy within the United States. Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a significant umbrella organization for American Jewish groups, also joined the other Jewish leaders on their sojourn to Qatar. Additionally, Menachem Genack, who serves as the CEO of the Orthodox Union Kosher Division, overseeing the certification of thousands of kosher food facilities worldwide, was also on the trip.
Sources who spoke to the Jewish Voice on the condition of anonymity have claimed that the aforementioned Jewish leaders were intentionally misled by Allaham and Muzin, who did not describe the trip that was offered to Doha in a forthright manner. Rather than spelling it out directly for the Jewish leaders and telling them that they will be recipients of luxury hospitality and other high end amenities from the Qatari government in exchange for their commitment to labor assiduously to create better political and business opportunities for the Qataris by leveraging their influence with former President Trump and his administration, they were led to believe that a dialogue could be established with Qatari officials in order to help tamper down tensions between Qatar and Israel. They were also under the erroneous assumption that their discussions with the Qatari Emir and his acolytes would possibly lead to Qatar cutting off financial aid to Hamas, a terrorist organization that is dedicated to destroying the Jewish State through the use of wanton terror targeting Israeli civilians and military personnel.
In March 2018, an intriguing case emerged that drew significant attention, shining a light on the intersection of politics, business, cyberespionage, and international relations. Elliott Broidy, a Republican fund-raiser closely associated with President Trump, filed a lawsuit accusing the government of Qatar for hacking into his emails and collaborating with Washington lobbyists to tarnish his reputation, as was reported in the New York Times.
Broidy, an influential Los Angeles investor and Republican financier, had been a vocal critic of Qatar within Washington circles. He accused the Qatari government of supporting Islamist extremism and invested millions in funding think-tank conferences that amplified these criticisms, the NYT report said. Broidy did not stop at voicing his concerns; he actively engaged with President Trump and Republican lawmakers, advocating for his views on Qatar.
Several news articles, including reports in The New York Times, highlighted the overlap between Broidy’s political advocacy and business interests. These articles suggested that Broidy might have promised access to the Trump administration or congressional Republicans in exchange for lucrative contracts with foreign governments. Many of these reports were based, at least in part, on copies of Broidy’s emails that were provided to journalists by an anonymous group critical of his views on the Middle East.
When news of the leaked emails broke, representatives of Broidy suspected Qatar of being behind the cyberattack. Their suspicion was rooted in the fact that high-profile critics of Qatar, including Yousef al-Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to Washington, had also experienced similar hacks of their private emails, as was noted in the NYT report. These attacks displayed a level of sophistication that suggested state involvement.
In response to the suspected hack, Broidy filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuit asserted that the hacking was a hostile intelligence operation conducted by a foreign nation within the United States against influential American citizens. Broidy’s legal team accused Qatar of orchestrating the attack, seeking to damage his reputation and business interests.
Cyberforensic experts, including former American intelligence officials, were engaged to investigate the attack. Their analysis initially indicated that the attack originated from computer servers in Britain and the Netherlands. However, further examination revealed that the server addresses were used to conceal another point of origin, eventually tracing the attack back to Qatar.
This past Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that after years of grinding through the legal process with little momentum, Broidy last month found a potential toehold. One of the people that was included in Broidy’s lawsuit was Joey Allaham, but now, according to the WSJ, Joey Allaham, settled the case and admitted that he had known about the hack. The report said that he gave Broidy his own set of emails which is something Broidy never expected to receive.
These emails have opened a Pandora’s box of allegations, adding a layer of complexity to an already contentious legal dispute. Among the revelations from these emails is an apparent admission by Allaham that he had prior knowledge of the hack that exposed Broidy’s confidential emails, the WSJ reported.
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