A former CIA officer who spied on Qatar’s rivals to help the tiny Arab country land this year’s World Cup is now under FBI scrutiny and newly obtained documents show he offered clandestine services that went beyond soccer to try to influence US policy, an Associated Press investigation found.

The monthslong FBI probe focuses on whether Kevin Chalker’s work for Qatar broke laws related to foreign lobbying, surveillance and exporting sensitive technologies and tradecraft, said two people with knowledge of the investigation who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorised to discuss it.

Chalker’s goal, AP found, was to burnish Qatar’s image among American decision makers while undermining critics who have accused the Persian Gulf monarchy of financing terrorists and other wrongdoing. Federal investigators have focused increasing scrutiny in recent years on Qatar’s influence efforts, including those alleged to involve former US national security officials.

AP’s reporting in the past year has detailed how Chalker and his company, Global Risk Advisors, sought to help Qatar host the 2022 World Cup by spying on soccer officials in rival countries. That included deploying a Facebook “honeypot” in which an attractive woman is used to get close to a target, having someone pose as a photojournalist to keep tabs on one nation’s bid and, after the decision was announced in 2010, waging a failed two-year campaign to get a top German soccer official to soften his criticism of Qatar.

New AP reporting based on internal Global Risk Advisors records and interviews with Chalker’s associates shows much of his work in the years since has focused on seeking to strengthen Qatar’s influence in the US. That included attempting to set up high-level meetings between Qatari officials and top CIA leaders and pitching a sprawling covert influence operation to damage the reputations of US officials perceived as Qatar’s enemies. The company even boasted in internal records of using spycraft to try and gather information on a congressman who sponsored legislation Qatar opposed.

Global Risk Advisors “has consistently protected Qatar by attacking the attackers,” the company said in one internal document.

Chalker’s lawyer, Kevin Carroll, said Global Risk Advisors had never engaged in any unlawful activity and was unaware of any federal investigation.

The FBI said it could neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. Qatar did not respond to requests for comment.

Qatar, an energy-rich sheikdom that is home to a massive US military base, has spent billions in recent years to successfully fend off attempts by its neighbouring rivals – Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to isolate the country and sour its relationship with the US.

Chalker began a long and lucrative relationship with Qatar after working as an undercover operations officer for the CIA in the 2000s. His work on the World Cup helped Qatar become Global Risk Advisors’ main client, allowing it to open offices in New York, Washington, London and Doha.

AP’s reporting was based on hundreds of pages of documents provided by former Chalker associates who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation.

Company records and interviews show Chalker consulted with and received advice on some of his proposals from then-CIA employee Denis Mandich, who worked as an agency liaison to Silicon Valley. Those projects included a multibillion-dollar proposal in 2014 to have Global Risk Advisors invest in tech startups on Qatar’s behalf, pitched as a way to block the sale of potentially sensitive technology to its Persian Gulf rivals.

It’s unclear from company documents if that project moved forward and Mandich later left the agency and joined Global Risk Advisors to become one of Chalker’s top lieutenants. Mandich’s attorneys did not respond to questions about his work for GRA.

Chalker’s efforts at boosting Qatar’s ties with the US included an effort to set up a face-to-face meeting between top officials at the CIA and Qatar’s prime minister. One Qatari official told Chalker that such a meeting help would provide a “golden stamp of approval” for Chalker’s various projects, company records show.

But those records show Chalker’s initial efforts to broker such a meeting failed despite his boasting of having unparalleled access to the highest levels of the Qatari government.

The CIA declined to comment.