The Art of the StealA project of the Save America Movement
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★ Private Action

Imaad Zuberi routes $900K to Trump inaugural via shell company

Donations In, Favors OutThe Pardon List

Filed January 2017$900,000

★ The Brief

What happened

In late 2016 and early 2017, Imaad Zuberi routed a $900,000 donation through a shell company to the committee funding Donald Trump's first inauguration, hiding the money's true source. Federal prosecutors charged it as an illegal straw-donor contribution, and Zuberi pleaded guilty in 2019 to that along with a wider set of fraud, foreign-lobbying and tax crimes.

Who enabled it

IZImaad Zuberi

Who benefits

Donald Trump5C58th Presidential Inaugural Committee

Deal or steal?

Zuberi was serving a 12-year federal sentence in that case when, in May 2025, Trump commuted it — clemency for a donor who had illegally funneled money into Trump's own inauguration.

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In late 2016 and early 2017, Imaad Zuberi — a Pakistani-American venture capitalist who had been a top Obama 2012 fundraiser and a "Hillblazer" for Clinton 2016 — routed a $900,000 donation through a shell company to the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, which funded Donald Trump's January 20, 2017 inauguration and related events.

Federal prosecutors later charged the donation as an illegal conduit contribution: Zuberi disguised the true source of the funds, evading federal disclosure requirements and contribution limits. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to a package of offenses that included the conduit contribution alongside Foreign Agents Registration Act violations, tax evasion, and witness tampering. He was sentenced in February 2021 to twelve years in federal prison, a $1.75 million fine, and $15.7 million in restitution.

In May 2025, President Trump commuted Zuberi's sentence — captured in a companion action on this site. The Justice Department issued an amended commutation warrant on October 1, 2025.

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