Trump Donor Pleads Guilty to Bilking People Who Wanted Access and Visas
The donor did not come alone.
According to federal prosecutors, the donor, Sherry Xue Li, had arranged for a dozen foreigners to attend alongside her, charging them each more than $90,000, including admission to the soiree.
Foreigners cannot make campaign contributions, but she nonetheless passed the money along to the fund-raiser's organizers and used the photo, prosecutors said, to raise even more from unwitting investors who thought they were buying into an educational institute. She spent the money on more contributions — and herself.
The dinner was a small part of a nearly decadelong scheme in which Ms. Li, along with her business partner, Lianbo Wang, solicited more than $30 million from roughly 150 foreigners who thought they were investing in the educational institute. In exchange, the donors were promised political access and a pathway to citizenship.
Ms. Li, who has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans and Republican causes, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Mr. Wang had pleaded guilty to related charges in 2024 and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Ms. Li 'attempted to corrupt a fundamental institution in this country — fair and transparent elections free from unlawful foreign influence,' Joseph Nocella Jr., the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release.
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