{"id":339543,"date":"2025-10-29T00:36:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T00:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339543\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T00:36:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T00:36:17","slug":"zohran-mamdani-faces-criminal-referrals-to-doj-over-alleged-illegal-campaign-donations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339543\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani faces criminal referrals to DOJ over alleged illegal campaign donations"},"content":{"rendered":"

With one week until Election Day in New York City, a campaign finance watchdog group, the Coolidge Reagan Foundation,\u00a0filed two criminal referrals<\/a>\u00a0against Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday, claiming he received illegal contributions from foreign donors<\/a>, but the Mamdani campaign maintains that any issue regarding financial contributions has been resolved.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0review of finance reports\u00a0earlier this month revealed that Mamdani\u2019s campaign had accepted nearly $13,000 from at least 170 donors from outside the United States, raising questions about his campaign\u2019s financial compliance, as only US citizens or permanent legal residents are permitted to contribute to American political campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not isolated incidents or clerical errors,\u201d Dan Backer, a national campaign finance expert and president of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, told Fox News Digital. \u201cThis was a sustained pattern of foreign money flowing into a\u00a0New York City mayoral race\u00a0which is a clear violation of both federal law and New York City campaign finance rules. Mamdani\u2019s campaign was on notice for months that it was accepting illegal foreign contributions, and yet it did nothing meaningful to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Mamdani campaign said that \u201c31 of the 170 donors have proven their citizenship or legal permanent residence and have been deemed permissible by the Campaign Finance Board, and the remaining 139 have had their donations refunded.\u201d<\/p>\n

CRF sent the criminal referrals to Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the US Department of Justice\u2019s Criminal Division and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday morning, citing potential violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which makes it unlawful to \u201caccept or receive\u201d contributions from\u00a0foreign nationals\u00a0in any federal, state or local election.<\/p>\n

\"NewA finance watchdog group has filed two criminal referrals against Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani over alleged illegal campaign contributions from foreign donors. AP<\/p>\n

While foreign nationals are not permitted to donate to American political candidates under campaign finance law, US citizens and lawful permanent residents living abroad can legally contribute to US campaigns, which means that not all of Mamdani\u2019s donations from addresses outside the US are necessarily from foreign nationals, a state campaign finance official indicated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is crystal clear that foreign nationals may not participate in American elections, and that includes making contributions. Yet Mamdani\u2019s campaign repeatedly accepted donations from individuals abroad,\u201d Backer added, arguing that \u201cwhether through negligence or intent, this conduct undermines the integrity of the democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DOJ referral calls for a criminal investigation \u201cinto potential FECA violations,\u201d while the Manhattan referral cites \u201cpossible violations of New York Election Law \u00a7 17.152, which makes it a misdemeanor for two or more persons to conspire to promote an election by unlawful means.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cForeign money in American elections is not just a technical violation, it is a threat to self-government,\u201d CRF Chairman Shaun McCutcheon said. \u201cEvery dollar illegally funneled into a campaign from abroad dilutes the voice of lawful American voters. This case must be investigated immediately, and those responsible held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a Fox News Digital review of New York City Campaign Finance Board filings, Mamdani\u2019s campaign collected roughly $13,000 from donors listing foreign addresses, including one $500 donation in January from his mother-in-law in Dubai, which was refunded four days later.<\/p>\n

As of Oct. 14, filings revealed 91 of the foreign donations had been refunded, totaling $5,723.50.<\/p>\n

The New York Post\u00a0was the first to report on the out-of-town donations. The Mamdani campaign told the outlet last month that \u201cwe will of course return any donations that are not in compliance with CFB law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But CRF argued that \u201creturning questionable donations doesn\u2019t cure the violation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCRF respectfully urges you to\u00a0investigate and prosecute\u00a0Mamdani\u2019s apparent acceptance of illegal contributions from foreign nationals for his mayoral campaign,\u201d Backer wrote in the criminal referrals.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that some of the donations from outside the country could be from \u201cUS citizens living abroad who are legally entitled to contribute,\u201d Backer argued that \u201cthe totality of the circumstances suggests a reasonable likelihood a substantial number of these contributions are illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite being well aware of this influx of illegal foreign contributions, it appears he did nothing throughout most of 2025 to prevent his campaign from accepting them in the first place,\u201d Backer charged.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll US citizens and permanent residents, including those who live outside the US, are legally permitted to donate to New York City mayoral campaigns under federal campaign finance law and New York State and City law,\u201d Mamdani campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec told Fox News Digital when reached for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Campaign has a rigorous compliance process in place to ensure compliance with these laws, including a protocol to confirm whether donors with foreign addresses are US citizens or lawful permanent residents. The Campaign will promptly issue refunds for any donations that are found to be impermissible,\u201d Pekec added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With one week until Election Day in New York City, a campaign finance watchdog group, the Coolidge Reagan…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":339544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,9611,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5341,80,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-339543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-department-of-justice","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115454659090553348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}