A former White House aide who advised then-President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on counterterrorism initiatives has reportedly been accused of committing child sex crimes in the UK.
Rahamim ‘Rami’ Shy, 46, was arraigned on Friday in Luton Crown Court, near London. He faces charges of possessing indecent images of children and arranging the commission of a child sexual offense, according to local media reports. The New Jersey resident was arrested in late February and jailed at HMP Bedford pending court proceedings.
Shy, who has not yet entered a plea to the charges, is scheduled for another court hearing in June, the Daily Mail reported. His case is slated to go to trial in August.
The defendant held multiple roles in the Obama administration, reportedly including coordination of the US government’s efforts to combat Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists. He was a senior adviser in the US Treasury Department from 2008 to 2014, working to disrupt terrorist financing and helping overseas allies impose sanctions on adversarial governments. He also advised the chiefs of staff at the Pentagon.
Shy’s LinkedIn page, which has been deleted, said he advised the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. He studied at New York’s Columbia University and reportedly worked most recently at US banking giant Citigroup. A company spokesman told the Daily Mail that Shy was no longer a Citigroup employee.