al-Zayat met with U.S. congressman Bob Ney and lobbyists Roy Coffee and David DiStefano. According to the U.S. Justice Department, during those meetings Ney accepted "thousands of dollars worth of free casino chips" from al-Zayat. Roy Coffee and David DiStefano confirmed that they worked with Ney to seek a special government permit to let al-Zayat "sell plane parts to Iran despite U.S. trade sanctions." However, the permit never was awarded.
