WASHINGTON — Elliott Broidy worked his way through school at a laundromat and later became wealthy as a venture capitalist and defense contractor. Along the way, he became a pillar in the Jewish community of Los Angeles and an influential Republican fund-raiser.

In the early days of the Trump administration, Mr. Broidy worked to influence America’s foreign relations. He is under federal investigation into possible violations of lobbying laws. And his arrangements with the government of the United Arab Emirates and a Malaysian financier are of particular interest to prosecutors.

Here are some takeaways from The New York Times’s report about this Trump ally.

Mr. Broidy’s associate was paid by the United Arab Emirates.

During the week of festivities around the inauguration, Mr. Broidy met an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, George Nader, whom he saw as an entry point to potentially lucrative business opportunities in the Middle East.

For the next several months, the two men worked closely while Mr. Nader was paid millions of dollars by the United Arab Emirates. During that time, Mr. Broidy started a campaign against Qatar, a small country in the Middle East with American military facilities that has long been considered a strategic ally of the United States.