(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The New York City mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani collected thousands of dollars in potentially illegal foreign donations, the same type of contributions that led the Biden-era DOJ to indict Mayor Eric Adams.
Mamdani is running for NYC mayor against Republican Curtis Sliwa and third-party candidate Andrew Cuomo. Meanwhile, Adams had initially opted to run independently but has since suspended his campaign.
Campaign disclosure records show Mamdani accepted $13,000 in foreign donations, including one from his mother-in-law in Dubai. At least 170 of his 54,000 donors listed addresses outside the U.S., the New York Post reported Sunday.
This could be a problem for Mamdani, as foreign nationals are prohibited by law from donating to political campaigns. Permanent residents, also known as green card holders, are exempt from these restrictions.
Campaigns are expected to return illegal donations, and individuals or entities that accept them can face fines and jail time.
As reported by the Post, Mamdani’s campaign has not returned 88 foreign donations, totaling $7,190, while only $5,608 has been refunded.
Mamdani mayoral campaign took in $13,000 in illegal foreign donations, records show https://t.co/hbwtDdgfLJ pic.twitter.com/E0Fb34eyJK
— New York Post (@nypost) October 12, 2025
Other contributors include Ada Diaz Ahmed, a Dubai-based investor, and James Furlaud, an environmental scientist from Australia, each donating $2,100.
Mamdani’s mother-in-law, Bariah Dardari, a health care official in Dubai, gave $500, which the campaign has since returned.
Headline USA emailed Mamdani’s campaign finance department, asking whether he personally knew any donors. The message went unanswered, with an automatic reply saying the inbox is not “monitored.”
In an earlier statement, his campaign said they “will of course return any donations that are not in compliance with CFB law.”
The disclosure comes as Sliwa raised alarms about “dark money” supporting Mamdani’s campaign.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, so I would be very concerned,” Sliwa said. “There is probably a lot more in terms of foreign money.”
This scandal is reminiscent of how Adams’ political career unraveled after the DOJ accused him in 2024 of taking illegal campaign contributions from the Turkish government.
At the time, Damian Williams, the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, claimed this was part of a broader scheme to enrich Adams and boost his campaign funds.
Adams repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, calling the charges politically motivated, allegedly in response to his vocal criticism of Biden-era border policies. The charges were ultimately dismissed after President Donald Trump took office in 2025.
Mayor Eric Adams: “It is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes. If so, these charges will be entirely false, based on lies.”
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 26, 2024
