Ex-Wasserman Schultz IT aide arrested for bank fraud may have been a 'substantial security threat'

Data transfers between disgraced one-time Democratic National Committee chairwoman and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her former IT aide Imran Awan may have constituted a significant security breach, one lawmaker claims.

Awan is at the center of multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy after he was arrested attempting to flee to Pakistan in July.

Fox News reported that on Tuesday, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who sits on the Homeland Security subcommittee on cyber security, told fellow Republicans Awan created 5,400 unauthorized logins on the House server belonging to former Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), who is now California's attorney general.

After the House's inspector general reported findings on Awan, a criminal investigation into him and multiple associates was open, culminating in him being fired by most congresspeople in February after allegations of "possible double-billing, alleged equipment theft and access to sensitive computer systems" were revealed.

Wasserman Schultz, however, kept him on her payroll until he was arrested in July. Perry told his colleagues that Capitol Police found a bag with Wasserman Schultz's initials that held a laptop, believed to be Awan's, inside the House's Rayburn office building two months after the former aide was banned from it.

These accusations of data transfers between Wasserman Schultz and Awan, Perry argued, "indicate a substantial security threat."

Awan was initially indicted for separate bank fraud charges after he and his wife were accused of a conspiracy that including taking out lines of credit at the Congressional Federal Credit Union and then sending the money to Pakistan.

As Forbes revealed yesterday, investigators found that Awan wiped his phone of data hours before his scheduled flight to Pakistan and had sold properties he owned in Virginia, leading them to believe he did not intend to return.