Nihad Awad Inc.
Awad is deliberately deceiving American Muslims about the legal status of CAIR. In reality the name “CAIR” is a catch-all series of interlocking legal entities fully controlled by him.
At a first glance, at CAIR’s website, supporters and donors are not made aware of the complex and interlocking network of legal entities behind the brand name CAIR. In fact, as far as the law is concerned, there is not ONE CAIR, but multiple entities that use that name with slight variations. In turn, these entities control real-estate properties worth millions of dollars are ultimately controlled by Nihad Awad personally— a highly unusual degree of opacity that is typical of corporations rather than civil rights nonprofits. This anomaly, is made even more troubling when viewed through the fact that Awad is not only the Executive Director of CAIR, but he is also a CAIR board member. In other words, Awad cannot be removed from CAIR even if the board, donors, and supporters decided to vote him out. So, Nihad Awad is accountable to no one, and no one can separate him from CAIR until the entire legal structure of the organization is modified which is something the board is supposed to do, but it cannot.
List of legal entities all controlled by Nihad Awad:
- Washington Trust Foundation (previously titled CAIR Inc. and CAIR-Action Network)
- Incorporation Date: 15 September 1994
- EIN: 52-1887951
- Type: Non-Profit
- Address: 120 E. Broad St., Unit A; Falls Church, Virginia, 22046
- Previous Address: 453 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington DC, 20003
- Awad Connection: Nihad Hammad or alternatively Nehad Hammad served as senior board member (source)
- Zahara Investment Corporation (status: revoked)
- Greater Washington LLC of Delaware
- Incorporation Date: 24 May 2004
- Company No: EXTUID_2878119
- Type: Limited Liability Company
- Address: 919 North Market Street, Suite 950, Wilmington, New Castle, DE, 19801
- Awad connection: Nihad Hammad secretary and treasurer (source) (see below)
- Greater Washington LLC of Delaware (DC Branch – Status Revoked)
- Incorporation Date: 30 December 2004
- Company No: 3806905
- Type: Limited Liability Company
- Address: 453 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington DC, 20003 (source)
- Awad connection: Nihad Awad, governor
- CAIR Foundation
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- Incorporation Date: 15 February 2005
- EIN: 77-0646756
- Type: Non-Profit
- Address: 453 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington DC, 20003
- Awad connection: Nihad Awad the executive director since 2005
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- Clear Consulting, Inc (Nevada; 2014)
- Incorporation Date: 24 July 2012
- Company No: E0389292012-9
- Type: Domestic Corporation
- Awad connection: Nehad A. Hammad, president
- Clear Consulting of VA, Inc (Branch, dissolved in 2014)
- Incorporation Date: 26 February 2013
- Company No: F1921040
- Type: Foreign (Nevada) Corporation
- Awad connection: Nehad A. Hammad, president
- 120a East Broad St LLC
- Incorporation Date: 15 October 2014
- Company No: S5283207
- Type: Limited Liability Company
- Address: 4151 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, 22030-0000, Virginia
- Awad connection: the address listed for Washington Trust Foundation at DC government record; same registered Agent (Samera Garbia) as Celestium former a month later (see below); the owner of CAIR headquarters (source)
- Celestium Consulting LLC (status: Inactive)
- Incorporation Date: 13 November 2014
- Company No: S5324175
- Type: Limited Liability Company
- Address: 4151 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, 22030-0000, Virginia
- Awad Connection: Nehad Hammad named as the principal
None of this is mentioned on CAIR’s website’s about section:
“CAIR was founded in 1994 with headquarters in Washington, D.C. . . .CAIR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations to CAIR are tax-deductible as allowable by law; our tax ID number is 77-0646756.”