Who is Evi Kokalari, the Albanian lobbyist who evades the US law

In the USA, there is a large number of Albanian lobbyists working to influence the US policy, primarily in favor of Kosovo Albanians, among them, Evi Kokalari stands out, whom US media highlight as being close to former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who is under Washington sanctions, as well as that she is a lobbyist who has not registered in accordance with the law.

Kokalari, an American of Albanian descent, has organized fundraising events for figures in the Republican Party while simultaneously promoting the interests of sanctioned politician Sali Berisha, which has raised concerns among legal and ethical experts, "The Beast" website notes.

Now, through social media, she vigorously lobbies for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and practically runs a campaign against anyone who expresses any positive views about Serbia and Serbs.

Between two election cycles, Evi Kokalari—who sometimes uses the surname of her ex-husband Angelakis—has gone from being a small real estate broker in Queens, whose involvement in politics never extended beyond a few donations and local campaigns, to being a part of the jet-set.

During the same period, starting in 2019, she has appeared on social media with Eric Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Ilir Meta, then President of Albania, and Yuri Kim, former US Ambassador to Albania.

Her posts showed that she regularly visited her homeland Albania and destinations such as London, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Her access to US politicians enabled her to propagate a narrative in the United States and Albania blaming liberal billionaire George Soros for US sanctions against former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, whom the State Department declared persona non grata due to corruption.

After her meetings with certain Republicans, their ranks began to echo her views on the alleged persecution of Berisha, and Kokalari claimed on the internet that she had recruited several members of Congress for her anti-Soros agenda.

But at the same time that her profile in both her home and adopted countries was rising and as her lifestyle became increasingly ostentatious, public records and her statements show that her small real estate sales and rental business began to falter, the website adds.

Albanian media have raised questions about how the newly minted expert and activist finances her travel bills and continuous activism, wondering if the funds came from Berisha and his supporters.

Experts in US lobbying regulations have expressed similar concerns.

"It certainly raised additional questions for me," Joshua Rosenstein, an attorney at the firm Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock said.

Rosenstein, along with all the legal experts consulted by "The Daily Beast" for this story, emphasized that the key question was whether Kokalari had met the criteria to be considered an agent of a foreign principal under the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act. Crucial to this is whether Kokalari ever received compensation for her work and whether she worked under the direction or control of another foreign principal.

"If she's flying constantly between the United States and Albania, coming back here to lobby on behalf of Berisha, and if he or his party is paying her, she has to register," James Thurber, a law professor said.

Thurber stressed that Kokalari was operating in a "gray area."

In an interview with "The Daily Beast," Kokalari dismissed the claims of Albanian media and insisted that she had never accepted any form of compensation, fees, or reimbursement for any of her advocacy.

However, she refused to provide details on how she funded her activities.

"I have nothing to report to the Department of Justice. If you think my involvement in US politics has anything to do with Albania, you're losing your mind," she said.

The sudden "outburst of activism" and numerous travels coincided with tough times in the New York real estate sector, when her company, "Golden Key Realty," was closed due to the pandemic.

"Tourism in New York is dead, office buildings are closed. It's hard to survive at this moment," she said in one statement.

A few months earlier, her company received a $40,000 loan from the Paycheck Protection Program to bridge the crisis. In early 2021, Kokalari personally received a $20,833 loan through the program.

Kokalari admitted to "The Daily Beast" that she had not updated the lists on her company's website for almost three years since the beginning of the pandemic.

It appears the last time she brokered a major real estate deal was in January 2019.

Kokalari insisted that her company continued to operate after that date, although she refused to provide dates and addresses.

However, real estate industry sources note there is little evidence of her company's activities, and the Real Estate Board of New York announced that her membership had been revoked in June 2021 due to non-payment of dues.

As her company stagnated, her lobbying activities increased, and she was portrayed as a member of Donald Trump's finance committee, a claim disputed by the committee.

Kokalari declined to comment on the committee's denial of her claims.

Several Balkan and Albanian experts contacted by "The Daily Beast" agreed that the US enjoyed enormous support and admiration in Albania, and that contact with the US political elite could turn into significant political capital. The lack of allies in the US administration practically disqualifies Albanian politicians from retaining power.

"No country is more important to Albania than the United States, and the US has no better friend worldwide than the Albanians," David Phillips from the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University, and a Balkan expert said.

In May 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken banned Sali Berisha, the former Albanian Prime Minister, and his entire family from entering the United States, citing involvement in corruption.

It was a devastating blow to Berisha's ambitions to regain leadership in the country he led between 2005 and 2013 and threatened his efforts to once again lead the Democratic Party of Albania.

According to Fred Abrahams, author of a book on Albania and a visiting professor at Bard College in Berlin, there is no doubt about Berisha's guilt; corruption is so widespread in the country that it is universal and inevitable. But the timing, he argues, reflects efforts by the United States and the European Union to strengthen and rejuvenate the Democratic Party of Albania by helping it rid itself of Berisha, who has dominated the organization since its formation in the 1990s.

But Kokalari, who had already supported Berisha in Albanian media, immediately began promoting the idea that the Soros family was behind the US move, a view echoed by her contacts in Congress, such as Congressman Zeldin.

"It's pretty routine for US citizens to raise money for members of the House of Representatives and then ask them to act on issues that matter to them," he said.

"As with anything else in Albania, it was transactional, and as a result, Albanian-Americans supported Lee Zeldin," he recalled.

Kokalari launched a comprehensive campaign to get Berisha removed from the sanctioned list, announcing in Albanian media that she would use all her connections in the US to do so.

In July 2022, the Albanian media outlet CNA revealed through flight records that Kokalari had made at least nine trips between the US and Albania as a part of her advocacy for Berisha, likely accumulating bills in tens of thousands of dollars - and undoubtedly making thousands more in bills for food and hotels.

The article stated that she had spent time on numerous vacations while her real estate business had already been closed.

In response to this reporting, Kokalari stated that she had consulted with legal counsel to ensure compliance with the law, but added that even if she had violated the law, it was worth working to restore Berisha.

"I don't have to report my travel and personal expenses to the Department of Justice. Your ignorance about how things work in the US is stunning," she wrote in Albanian on social media.

"Even if I broke the rules to help Sali Berisha and the opposition in Albania during such a difficult period, it should have been appreciated, not condemned," she added.

She further claimed that she had funded all her activities herself, thanks to certain "real estate investments."

She refused to provide any details about such investments, but public documents show that she is a co-owner of a two-story mixed-use building in Queens with at least one partner.

Property tax records from the City of New York reveal that the limited liability company behind the property repeatedly missed quarterly payments during 2021 and 2022.

Kokalari also pointed out that her feud with Berisha in the summer of 2022 was evidence that she had never been on anyone's payroll.

Kokalari is not the only US citizen of Albanian descent recently implicated in political scandals on both sides of the Atlantic.

The accusations against Charles McGonigal, former Head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's office in New York, include allegations of receiving bribes from a former Albanian intelligence agent living in New Jersey to take actions in favor of Edi Rama's government - specifically, to launch an investigation into a lobbyist hired by Lulzim Basha, Berisha's protege who became a rival in the Albanian Democratic Party.

The "Daily Beast" revealed in 2022 that the brother of an Albanian politician had been deeply involved in a company at the center of the latest federal investigation into Senator Bob Menendez. This brother, residing in the Garden State, who had previously served as the secretary for foreign relations of a marginal monarchist party in Albania and operated an illegal gambling establishment in the US, had previously lobbied in Washington for the lifting of sanctions against an Albanian prosecutor.