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New York City’s leading mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, raised nearly $13,000 from donors with addresses outside the United States, a Fox News review of New York City Campaign Finance records show — raising questions about campaign compliance and transparency.
As of Oct. 3, at least 170 of the nearly 54,000 contributions to the Mamdani campaign may violate campaign finance rules, as only U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents are permitted to contribute to American political campaigns. Candidates are expected to return illegal donations.
As of Tuesday, records revealed that 91 of the foreign donations have been refunded. According to data from the New York City Campaign Finance Records contribution refunds, $5,723.50 of the $7,190 has been returned to foreign donors.
A review of the donors revealed that Mamdani’s mother-in-law in Dubai, Bariah Dardari, donated $500 in January. Her donation was refunded four days later.
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The New York Post was the first to report on the out-of-town donations.
ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S $1M FUNDRAISING HAUL FUELED BY OUT-OF-STATE DONORS, DATA REVEALS
According to the campaign finance records, Dardari is a physician at Genesis Healthcare in Dubai, where she works as a pediatrician, according to Genesis’ website.
Overall, records revealed that Mamdani brought in at least $4 million in private donations, $12.7 million in public matching funds and has $6.1 million in cash on hand.
There are at least 79 outstanding foreign donations that have not been returned by the Mamdani campaign as of Tuesday evening.
The Mamdani campaign told The New York Post over the weekend that “we will of course return any donations that are not in compliance with CFB law.” His campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News’ comment request.
More than half of the $1 million that Mamdani’s mayoral campaign hauled in over the summer was from out of town, New York City Campaign Finance Board data revealed in late August.
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The Mamdani campaign said that the democratic socialist raised $1,051,204.85 in July and August, but while his campaign touted more than 8,628 in unique donors, Campaign Finance Board data revealed that 53.5%, or $562,422, of Mamdani’s fundraising came from outside the state of New York.
As Mayor Eric Adams suspended his re-election campaign last month, New Yorkers will elect a new mayor on Nov. 4. Mamdani has emerged as the frontrunner ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an Independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Fox News’ Ryan Rugani contributed to this report.
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