George Nader (businessman)
George Aref Nader (born May 15, 1959) is a Lebanese-American consultant, lobbyist, and political adviser who has been repeatedly convicted of sex offenses. Born in Lebanon, he moved to the United States as a teenager, learned English, and later studied at Cleveland State University. He founded the Middle East Insight magazine and worked as a “shadow diplomat” in the Middle East, helping connect U.S. politicians with officials in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. He also served as an adviser to the UAE Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and as a consultant to Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater.
Nader played a role in U.S.–Middle East politics during the 2000s and 2010s. In August 2016, he met with Donald Trump Jr., Erik Prince, and Joel Zamel to discuss help for the Trump campaign. He attended a December 2016 meeting in New York between UAE officials and Trump associates. He was questioned by special counsel Robert Mueller in January 2018 and was granted immunity.
Nader’s legal troubles extend beyond politics. His criminal record includes:
- 1991: A federal case in Virginia for transporting pornographic videotapes of young teens.
- 2003: A Czech Republic conviction for sexually abusing ten boys; he served about a year in prison.
- 2019: Charged in the United States with possessing child pornography and transporting child pornography, and with transporting a 14-year-old Czech boy to the U.S. for sex in 2000.
- 2020: He pleaded guilty to flying a 14-year-old boy from Europe to the United States for sex and to transporting illegal sexual images.
In 2021, Nader pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government for routing over $3.5 million through a front to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. He also faced campaign-finance-related charges associated with those activities. In July 2023, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison, to be served after finishing his sentence for the child-sex offenses.
As of February 6, 2025, Nader was released from prison and left the United States after giving testimony in a deposition.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:22 (CET).