Bilal Shehu, Foreign Contributions, New Jersey 2016

A New Jersey man has been convicted of helping to funnel $80,000 in campaign contributions from a foreign source to the joint fundraising committee of the President of the United States during the 2012 presidential election.

Bilal Shehu, 48, pleaded guilty on October 5, 2016 to knowingly and willfully making foreign contributions and donations in connection with the 2012 presidential election and to a fundraising and political campaign committee of the president, aggregating $25,000 or more during a calendar year.

The Paramus, New Jersey resident, admitted in his plea agreement that in September 2012, he received approximately $80,000 from a foreign source and provided it to a joint fundraising committee—including the authorized campaign committee of the president—in an effort to disguise the true origin of the money and so that a foreign national could attend a campaign event on October 8, 2012, in San Francisco.

According to the plea agreement, Shehu received an $80,000 wire transfer into his New Jersey-based bank account from a foreign bank account in late September 2012, knowing that he was to provide it to the joint fundraising committee. He then flew to San Francisco and attempted to gain entry into the San Francisco fundraising event with the foreign national, who was denied entry but was allowed to be photographed with the president.

No one on the joint fundraising committee has been accused of any wrongdoing and the committee has fully cooperated in the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The FBI investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Charles Walsh and Peter Halpern of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. McCarren of the District of New Jersey’s Special Prosecutions Division are prosecuting the case.

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