Hold onto your hats, folks—New York City’s mayoral race just got a bombshell dropped on it with claims that front-runner Zohran Mamdani’s rise might not be the grassroots fairy tale we’ve been sold.
According to the Daily Mail, Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old New York State Assemblyman leading the pack for mayor, is now under scrutiny after a conservative investigative outlet, White Collar Fraud, alleged his campaign received over $40 million through a web of charities tied to billionaire financier George Soros, possibly flouting federal tax laws.
Mamdani’s team has long painted his ascent from obscurity as a pure, people-powered movement, fueled by small donations and an army of young canvassers hitting the streets with backpacks in tow.
But the White Collar Fraud report, packed with a 40-page forensic breakdown of IRS filings and campaign finance records, suggests something far less organic—a coordinated scheme using tax-exempt organizations to bankroll political ambitions.
The allegations point to major 501(c)(3) charities, which are strictly barred from partisan politicking, funneling millions to 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups that can engage in limited political activity, but not direct candidate support.
According to the investigation, this network, including the Open Society Foundation and five other Soros-linked groups, didn’t just fund vague causes—they allegedly endorsed Mamdani outright, knocking on over 100,000 doors across New York City and mobilizing volunteers en masse.
Sam Antar, the investigator behind White Collar Fraud, isn’t buying the innocent explanations, calling this setup “the manufacturing process of a generational political machine that has weaponized the income tax code.”
Antar, a convicted felon turned white-collar fraud expert who now aids government probes, claims these groups mimicked grassroots efforts while directly boosting a specific candidate, which he argues crosses clear IRS lines.
His report accuses the nonprofits of filing federal forms denying coordination, a move he labels systematic fraud, and he’s taken action by lodging 11 whistleblower complaints with the IRS.
A spokesman for the Open Society Foundation pushed back, saying, “The grants it cited – many of which we were earmarked for specific projects and causes elsewhere around the country as we have disclosed – were made years before the mayoral race even began.”
That defense might sound tidy, but if millions were indeed redirected to field operations for Mamdani, as the report claims with receipts, it’s hard to see how timing alone clears the air on tax law violations.
Antar’s past as a convicted fraudster in the 1990s ‘Crazy Eddie’ securities scam, for which he served six months of house arrest, might raise eyebrows about his credibility, yet his current role lecturing for the IRS suggests he knows the ins and outs of financial trickery.
The scope of this alleged network, per the investigation, isn’t limited to Mamdani—it could span hundreds of races nationwide, hinting at a progressive funding machine operating under the guise of charity.
Mamdani’s spokesman, Andrew Epstein, has yet to respond to inquiries from outlets like the Daily Mail, leaving voters to wonder if silence speaks louder than any press release could.