By: Antonin Artaud

Left-wing mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s campaign quietly accepted nearly $13,000 in potentially illegal foreign donations, including one from his own mother-in-law in Dubai, the New York Post first reported.

According to a New York Post review of New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) records, at least 170 of Mamdani’s roughly 54,000 campaign contributions came from donors with addresses outside the United States. Under federal, state, and city law, only U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents may donate to political campaigns, and any illegal foreign donations must be returned. Candidates who knowingly accept such contributions face steep penalties, including possible criminal charges.

Among the donors flagged by the Post was Dr. Bariah Dardari, Mamdani’s mother-in-law, who works as a pediatrician in Dubai. According to campaign filings reviewed by the Post, Dardari contributed $500 in January using her work address at a Dubai hospital. The donation was reportedly returned the same day.

However, records still show 88 unreturned foreign contributions worth $7,190, the New York Post found, raising questions about why those funds remain in Mamdani’s campaign account.

Mamdani’s campaign has so far amassed more than $4 million in private donations and received $12.7 million in public matching funds. With less than a month until Election Day, filings show the campaign sitting on about $6.1 million in cash.

In a statement to the Post, the Mamdani campaign said it would “of course return any donations that are not in compliance with CFB law.” But when pressed, a campaign spokesperson did not explain why so many flagged donations have yet to be refunded, the outlet noted.

Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa sharply criticized the situation, telling the New York Post that the volume of foreign contributions “raises serious concerns.” Sliwa said, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. There is probably a lot more in terms of foreign money.”

Sliwa, who previously called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate potential “dark money” flowing into Mamdani’s campaign, warned that such cases highlight how “foreign countries know you don’t have to go to war against America — all you have to do is manipulate the election.”

So far, Mamdani’s campaign has refunded just $5,608 in donations, including Dardari’s $500. Many of the flagged contributions began arriving in June, ahead of Mamdani’s surprise victory in the Democratic primary over Mayor Eric Adams and former Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Post reported.

An analysis of CFB data by the Post found that many foreign donations came from tech professionals, doctors, professors, and students — some giving as little as $1, others as much as $2,100.

Among the largest contributions was $2,100 from James Furlaud, an environmental scientist at the University of Tasmania in Australia. Another $2,100 came from Ada Diaz Ahmed, described as a Dubai-based investor.

Other donors included Jun-Dai Bates Kobashigawa, a Montreal-based software developer who works for GoDaddy, and Ugur Macit, a German software engineer from Mühlheim am Main. Both contributed small sums between $100 and $250, records show.

A Calgary physician, Ahmed Enbya, also sent $100 to Mamdani’s campaign, according to filings cited by the New York Post. None of these donors responded to the outlet’s requests for comment.

One foreign-based donor whose contribution was legal was Nupur Amin Marquardt, a U.S. citizen and consultant based in Hamburg, Germany.