Foreign nationals are legally prohibited from contributing to U.S. federal elections (52 U.S.C. § 30121). Foreign-agent lobbyists must register under FARA. Foreign-policy-aligned PACs are domestic but advocate specific foreign-country positions. This page tracks all four — every row links to a government primary source.
"Foreign donor" is a phrase that does heavy lifting in political discourse, often collapsing four very different stories. We separate them on purpose:
Source bar: every row links to fec.gov, justice.gov, efile.fara.gov, or govinfo.gov. Where a row covers an FEC Matter Under Review that resulted in a 2-2 deadlock, we say so — a deadlock is a procedural dismissal, not a finding of innocence.
Foreign nationals are prohibited by federal law (52 U.S.C. § 30121) from contributing to U.S. federal elections. These rows document FEC enforcement actions or DOJ criminal cases in which the prohibition was found violated. Every row links to the DOJ press release, indictment, or FEC Matter Under Review.
Chinese billionaire pled guilty in EDNY to a straw-donor scheme: solicited others to make political contributions in their names which he reimbursed, plus immigration fraud.
SDNY indictment charging straw-donor and foreign-national contribution conspiracy; $1M wired by Russian oligarch Andrey Muraviev to fund federal contributions seeking cannabis licenses.
Parnas and Fruman were convicted of violating the foreign-national contribution prohibition (52 U.S.C. § 30121). The conspiracy involved soliciting and receiving $1M from Andrey Muraviev, a Russian national, then making contributions in their own names to federal candidates in states where Parnas was seeking cannabis-business licenses.
Sentenced to 12 years; pled guilty to FARA violation, tax evasion, and illegal conduit contributions funneling foreign money into U.S. campaigns and the 2017 inaugural committee.
Zuberi acted as a conduit funneling money from foreign principals into federal campaigns and the 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee under his own name. The DOJ sentencing release documents 12-year sentence and ~$950k in conduit contributions across multiple cycles.
Patten pled guilty to FARA violation; admitted purchasing four inauguration tickets for a Ukrainian oligarch via a $50,000 straw-donor payment reimbursed through a Cypriot bank account.
Patten's plea documented a $50,000 payment to the inaugural committee made in his own name but reimbursed by an unnamed Ukrainian oligarch through a Cypriot account. The plea formed part of the Mueller Special Counsel investigation referrals.
Chung pled guilty to bank fraud, tax evasion, and two misdemeanor election-law conspiracy counts; told federal investigators $35,000 of donations originated with PRC military intelligence.
The Thompson Committee report documents Chung's testimony that approximately $35,000 of contributions he made to DNC committees in the 1996 cycle originated with Chinese military-intelligence sources.
"Miriam gave my campaign indirectly and directly $250 million." — Donald J. Trump, White House Hanukkah reception, Dec 16, 2025. SEALED is the audit of every campaign promise Trump made BEFORE that money flowed. 145 promises, graded against primary-source receipts. 116pp PDF.