Patel entered Trump’s orbit as a congressional staffer of modest means. But the years since have been unquestionably lucrative as Patel parlayed proximity to Trump and a zeal for self-promotion into consulting contracts, corporate board seats and a role as a sought-after MAGA commentator. It all helped swell his net worth to as much as $15 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of his government financial disclosure forms.

As Patel awaits Senate confirmation to become the next FBI director, his private-sector work is drawing renewed scrutiny from ethics experts and Democrats who say the interests of his former clients could conflict with those of the law enforcement agency he’s likely to soon lead.

The scope of Patel’s business dealings with foreign entities is hard to fully discern because he in some instances disclosed only minimal information about the nature of his work. But they’re coming into focus at a time the Trump administration’s Justice Department intends to scale back enforcement of laws governing foreign lobbying. And they’re all the more notable because at least one client, the clothing company Shein, was established in China, a country U.S. authorities have described as a national security threat.

A spokeswoman for Patel did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the Washington-based government watchdog Public Citizen, said Patel’s business dealings presented problems that need to be explored before he becomes FBI director. “The conflicts of interest seem very obvious to me,” Holman said.

From obscurity to prominence

Patel, 44, was not in Trump’s orbit when the Repubican was first elected to the White House. He had toiled as a public defender and Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor before catching on with the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee during the FBI’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.

Deeply skeptical of the origins of that investigation, Patel helped author a document that identified problems with the investigation and faulted the FBI over its surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser. The memo caught Trump’s attention, paving the way for Patel’s promotion to a series of increasingly high-profile roles in the administration.

After Trump’s defeat in 2020, Patel leveraged his connections to the former president to attain considerable wealth.

He wrote a book and became a ubiquitous presence in conservative media as one of Trump’s most outspoken loyalists, railing against so-called “government gangsters” while voicing an eagerness to go after Trump’s political enemies in a future administration.

He also launched a nonprofit, the Kash Foundation, that aimed to foster “a healthier relationship between the US federal government and American citizens.” The organization raised nearly $1.3 million in 2023 but spent only $212,821 providing “financial and legal assistance for whistle-blowers, needy families and education” that forms the core of its stated mission, according to its most recent tax returns. The group also sold “Fight With Kash” merchandise that included beanies, scarves, hoodies and playing cards.

The group held nearly $850,000 in reserve in 2023 while spending $332,000 on “advertising and promotion,” including $275,475 paid to One and Oh LLC, a company that was founded by the Kash Foundation’s vice president and that Patel also consulted for.

Patel’s roster of clients

Meanwhile, as Patel became an increasingly influential adviser to Trump, earning $544,000 from the presidential candidate’s political operation, he was building a roster of foreign and domestic consulting clients, none of which was revealed until his most recent government financial disclosure was made public last week.

The document shows Patel drew income from an unusual range of sources — the Embassy of Qatar, Shein and a California company that rents out metal storage tanks. Some of that work came at particularly sensitive times for clients.

Patel’s consulting for The Czechoslovak Group, a foreign arms conglomerate also known as CSG, coincided with the firm’s push to purchase Vista Outdoor, the maker of such famous American ammo brands as Federal and Remington. Senate Republicans, including future Vice President JD Vance, blasted the purchase last year as a threat to national security and urged the Biden administration to review the pending sale.

In a letter to the Treasury Department, Vance accused CSG of having “ties to the inner circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin.” The company has vehemently denied Vance’s claims, calling them “nonsense.” The sale went through in November.

Patel’s financial disclosure is not clear about when he was hired by CSG, how much he was paid or what work he did. But it indicates he consulted for a branch of the company called CSGM during the past two years and made more than $5,000 for his work, which was done through his consulting firm, Trishul LLC.

Vance spokeswoman Taylor Van Kirk did not directly address Patel’s work for the arms maker or whether the vice president still has concerns about the company’s purchase of an American ammunition manufacturer. She said that Vance has faith in Patel and believes he is “extremely qualified” to be FBI director.

Another foreign company that hired Patel was Elite Depot Ltd., the Cayman Islands-based parent company of Shein.

He began consulting in April for Elite Depot in an arrangement that ended last month. His disclosure states he was given between $1 million and $5 million worth of unvested stock in the company that will mature over the coming year. He said he wasn’t divesting from Elite Depot — unlike many of his other stock holdings — because there was only a “remote” chance his new job would involve the company.

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The forms don’t reveal what Patel did for the company or what he may have earned beyond the transfer of stock. On the campaign trail, Trump railed against China and pledged to impose steep tariffs on the country’s exports to the U.S.

Though now headquartered in Singapore, Shein produces most of its goods in China, and Trump’s proposed levies represented a threat to Shein’s direct-to-consumer business model, which ships low-cost goods from Chinese factories to U.S. consumers. Most of those goods are imported duty free under a nearly century-old trade loophole. Trump slapped 10% tariffs on Chinese imports that also mandated an end to the loophole.

Shein did not respond to a request for comment. It has also been dogged by criticisms over accusations that its supply chain may rely on forced labor. Last month, a lawyer for the company evaded questions from British lawmakers about whether its products include cotton from China’s Xinjiang province, where Beijing is accused of holding members of mostly Muslim ethnic groups in detention camps.

Patel will maintain his investment in Shein’s parent company even as he leads an FBI that has aggressively sounded the alarm about the danger China poses to the U.S.

The FBI says China has long engaged in a vast, multi-pronged espionage and influence operation that relies on traditional spies and hackers, as well as Chinese-based companies.