The Associated Press has learned that an Iranian-born, Kansas City based aviation mogul is the focus of a new global criminal corruption case. The businessman is Farhad Azima, an American citizen who lives in Kansas City but frequently travels the globe.

Authorities in the U.S. and abroad are investigating Azima as part of a global corruption case. Investigators are examining whether Azima, now 75, paid a kickback to a former United Arab Emirates official to reap the profits from a hotel sale in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Azima declined to answer written questions from the AP or to be interviewed.

When a Kansas strip-mall bank with possible mob ties folded in the mid-1980s, federal authorities investigated whether Azima, a shareholder, should face criminal charges. The probe hit a dead end. Azima, a U.S. citizen, essentially had a get-out-of-jail-free card because of secretive work he had performed for the U.S. government, a former federal prosecutor involved in the case said. Azima, a gunrunner later tied to the CIA, was never prosecuted.