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    Trump Commutes Sentence of Imaad Zuberi, Major Donor to 2017 Inauguration

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    Imaad Zuberi had been a major donor to Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, before shifting his support to Mr. Trump after his 2016 victory.President Trump on Wednesday commuted the sentence of a California venture capitalist and major political donor who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for violating lobbying, campaign finance and tax laws, and obstructing an investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee.The donor, Imaad Zuberi, 54, had been a major supporter of Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, before shifting his support to Mr. Trump after his 2016 victory.In the three months after the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Zuberi donated more than $1.1 million to committees associated with Mr. Trump and the Republican Party, scoring coveted invitations to a pair of black-tie dinners celebrating Mr. Trump’s inauguration. In the process, he posted photos of himself with the president, as well as Mr. Trump’s first chief of staff, Reince Priebus and various cabinet nominees.In 2020, Mr. Zuberi pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal investigation into the source of a $900,000 donation he made through his company to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee in late December 2016.In 2019, Mr. Zuberi pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign donations during the Obama administration, including some funded by foreign sources, as part of a scheme to gain access to American politicians for foreign clients.He also pleaded guilty to falsifying records filed with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to conceal his lobbying work on behalf of Sri Lanka to help burnish the country’s reputation in Washington amid human rights concerns. And he pleaded guilty to failing to report and pay taxes on $5.65 million he was paid for the Sri Lankan lobbying campaign, much of which, prosecutors say, he diverted for personal use.During some of the criminal proceedings, Mr. Zuberi was represented by David Warrington, who is now Mr. Trump’s White House counsel.A senior White House official said Mr. Warrington recused himself from deliberations about the commutation.Part of Mr. Zuberi’s defense involved arguing that some of the activity with which he was charged stemmed from his work as a longtime intelligence source for the Central Intelligence Agency.Mr. Zuberi was sentenced in 2021. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to pay nearly $16 million in restitution and $1.75 million in fines. He had been held at a low-security federal correctional institution in California and was scheduled to be released in 2030, according to the Bureau of Prisons website. More

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      Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner

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      Paul Walczak’s pardon application cited his mother’s support for the president, including raising millions of dollars and a connection to a plot to publicize a Biden family diary.As Paul Walczak awaited sentencing early this year, his best hope for avoiding prison time rested with the newly inaugurated president.Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.Ms. Fago had raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaigns and those of other Republicans, the application said. It also highlighted her connections to an effort to sabotage Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign by publicizing the addiction diary of his daughter Ashley Biden — an episode that drew law enforcement scrutiny.Mr. Walczak’s pardon application argued that his criminal prosecution was motivated more by his mother’s efforts for Mr. Trump than by his admitted use of money earmarked for employees’ taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle.Still, weeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming, even as Mr. Trump issued clemency grants to hundreds of other allies.Then, Ms. Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Pardons Paul Walczak, Whose Family Sought to Publicize Ashley Biden’s Diary

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      The pardon of Paul Walczak, who had been convicted of tax crimes, comes as the president uses clemency to reward allies and swipe at perceived enemies.President Trump on Wednesday pardoned a Florida health care executive whose mother played a role in trying to expose the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary.The pardon of the executive, Paul Walczak, was signed privately and posted on the Justice Department’s website on Friday. It came less than two weeks after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution, for tax crimes that prosecutors said were used to finance a lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of a yacht.Mr. Walczak’s mother, Elizabeth Fago, who was also involved in the health care industry in Florida, is a longtime Republican donor and fund-raiser who played a role in a surreptitious effort to help Mr. Trump by undermining Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the 2020 presidential election.During the campaign, Ms. Fago was contacted by a man who was in possession of a diary kept by Mr. Biden’s daughter, Ashley, as she recovered from addiction, The New York Times previously reported.When first told of the diary, Ms. Fago said she thought it would help Mr. Trump’s chances of winning the election if it was made public, two people familiar with the matter later told The Times. The man, Robert Kurlander, circulated the diary at a fund-raiser at Ms. Fago’s house in Jupiter, Fla., in September 2020.Ms. Fago’s daughter passed along a tip about the diary to Project Veritas, a conservative group that had become a favorite of Mr. Trump’s. Project Veritas later paid $40,000 to Mr. Kurlander and an associate, Aimee Harris, for the diary.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      I.R.S. Audits Are at a Record Low. Trump’s Cuts Could Make Them Even Rarer.

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      The Biden plan to increase tax revenue through more enforcement is being reversed. The Internal Revenue Service’s audit rate has been lower this decade than in most taxpayers’ lifetimes, a New York Times analysis shows, and if the Trump administration follows through with plans to cut the agency’s work force, audits will almost certainly become even rarer.The most recent I.R.S. data shows the audit rate of individual taxpayers has decreased by about two-thirds since 2010. More

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      U.S. Could Run Out of Cash by May, Budget Office Predicts

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      The Congressional Budget Office said that the so-called X-date could occur as early as spring if Congress does not lift or suspend the nation’s debt limit.The U.S. could run out of money to pay its bills by late May if Congress does not raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday.The forecast puts added pressure on Congress and the Trump administration to address the borrowing cap, which restricts the total amount of money that the United States is authorized to borrow to fund the government and meet its financial obligations. A protracted standoff later this year could rattle markets and complicate President Trump’s plans to enact more tax cuts.The C.B.O. noted that its forecast is subject to uncertainty over how much tax revenue the federal government will collect this year. It expects that the United States will have sufficient funds to keep paying bills through August or September. However, it said that if borrowing needs exceed its projections, the U.S. could run out of cash by late May or sometime in June.“The projected exhaustion date is uncertain because the timing and amount of revenue collections and outlays over the intervening months could differ from C.B.O.’s projections,” the budget office said in a report.The so-called X-date is the moment when the United States is unable to pay its bills, including interest payments to investors who hold government debt. Failure to meet those obligations could result in the United States defaulting on its debt. The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt, which is considered one of the safest investments in the world, and brinkmanship over missed payments could be economically damaging.The national debt is now approaching $37 trillion. Lawmakers agreed in June 2023 to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt limit until Jan. 1, 2025.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Prominent Cryptocurrency Investor Faces Senate Tax Inquiry

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      The Finance Committee’s top Democrat sent a letter last month to Dan Morehead, the founder of Pantera Capital, about the investigation.A Senate committee is investigating whether a prominent cryptocurrency investor violated federal tax law to save hundreds of millions of dollars after he moved to Puerto Rico, a popular offshore tax haven, according to a letter reviewed by The New York Times.Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, sent the letter on Jan. 9 to Dan Morehead, the founder of Pantera Capital, one the largest crypto investment firms.The letter said the Senate Finance Committee was investigating tax compliance by wealthy Americans who had moved to Puerto Rico to take advantage of a special tax break for the island’s residents that can reduce tax bills to zero.The investigation was focused on people who had improperly applied the tax break to avoid paying taxes on income that was earned outside Puerto Rico, according to the letter.“In most cases, the majority of the gain is actually U.S. source income, reportable on U.S. tax returns, and subject to U.S. tax,” the letter said.The letter requested detailed information from Mr. Morehead about $850 million in investment profits he made after moving to Puerto Rico in 2020, noting that he “may have treated” the gains as exempt from U.S. taxes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hunter Biden Faced Prison Time for Tax and Gun Charges

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      President Biden not only spared his son Hunter the humiliation of two felony convictions — he also saved him from what might have been a significant stretch of time in a federal prison.Hunter Biden, 54, pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges in Los Angeles in September for falsifying records and failing to file returns dating to a period when he was hooked on crack, alcohol and easy cash.He faced up to 17 years in federal prison during a scheduled sentencing hearing in Los Angeles on Dec. 16, but would most likely have served no more than 36 months behind bars, according to sentencing experts.A jury in Wilmington, Del., in June found Mr. Biden, the president’s younger son, guilty of three felony counts for lying on a federal firearms application after an extraordinary seven-day trial. That trial made painfully public Mr. Biden’s crack addiction, reckless behavior and ruinous spending — narrated by three former romantic partners, including the widow of his brother, Beau Biden.The gun conviction came with a stiffer maximum sentence, 25 years, but he was expected to face a shorter sentence — of up to 16 months — during a hearing scheduled in Delaware on Dec. 13.The sentences would most likely have run concurrently, with Hunter Biden serving the longer stretch.On Sunday, Hunter Biden’s legal team filed paperwork in both jurisdictions informing both judges that the pardon had rendered the hearings moot. More

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      Tax Preparers Charged in Scheme to Defraud Covid Relief of $65 Million

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      The preparers filed for pandemic-related tax credits on behalf of ineligible clients and then netted hefty filing fees, officials said.Two Mississippi tax preparers used multiple schemes to defraud $65 million from programs that had been designed to help businesses stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, federal prosecutors said this week.The preparers, Renata Walton, 44, and Nicole Jones, 36, both of Olive Branch, Miss., were indicted on more than 50 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, preparing false tax returns and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee said on Wednesday.They both pleaded not guilty and were each released on $100,000 bond, court documents show.Ms. Walton owned R&B Tax Express in Moscow, Tenn., where she and Ms. Jones prepared tax returns.Federal prosecutors said that the two women contacted small-business clients and asked if they were interested in pandemic-related grant money, according to court records. The women would then file for pandemic-related tax credits on behalf of the clients even though they were ineligible for those funds, officials said.The money came mostly from the Employee Retention Credit and the Sick and Family Leave Credit programs, court documents show.The Employee Retention Credit program offered companies thousands of dollars per employee if they could show that the pandemic was hurting their businesses, but that they were continuing to pay workers. Sick and Family Leave Credit offered tax breaks to employers who voluntarily gave their workers paid sick and family leave if they needed to take time off because of the pandemic.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Fan Bingbing, Once China’s Top Actress, Returns to Film Years After Tax Scandal

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      Fan was a megastar until 2018, when she was fined tens of millions of dollars over unpaid taxes and her career tanked. “Green Night” is her first film since the scandal.Fan Bingbing will return to the screen on Friday with the online release of “Green Night,” six years after one of the biggest names in Chinese cinema spectacularly fell from grace over a tax scandal.Fan was at the peak of her career in 2018, with a long list of blockbusters and lucrative deals with luxury brands, when she disappeared for months. She re-emerged in October that year with an apology. The authorities in China fined her the equivalent of almost $70 million in unpaid taxes and penalties.The scandal halted Fan’s film career in China, the biggest movie market outside the United States. She avoided criminal charges, however, and remained in the public eye as she expanded a beauty product business, Fan Beauty.In her return to film, Fan is the lead in “Green Night,” a film by Han Shuai, a Chinese director, and set in South Korea. It will be available to stream in the United States on Friday after making its debut on the festival circuit in Berlin last year.In “Green Night,” Fan, now 43, plays a Chinese woman who partners with a young South Korean woman to break free from oppression. The film is about “women helping women and women redeeming women,” she said last year at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. “Some of my experiences and some stories in recent years are integrated into the character I present in the movie.”Fan Bingbing, in red, and the South Korean actress Lee Joo-young at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea in October 2023.Lee Jae-hee/Yonhap, via Associated PressFan could not be reached for comment. Speaking about her hiatus, she said at the Busan festival that the break had given her “time to ground” herself.Her downfall was triggered by an accusation online that she was paid millions of dollars more for her work on a film than was reported to the tax authorities. The practice of using two contracts was widespread in many industries in China as a way to avoid taxes, but this accusation prompted a wider investigation into the entertainment business.“I have had deep and profound self-reflection,” Fan wrote in her 2018 apology, posted on the social media platform Weibo. “I feel shamed and guilty for what I have done.”The authorities in China maintain strict control of the media, including entertainment and censor content they deem inappropriate. Movie stars and other prominent figures in the entertainment industry are expected to adhere to the government guidelines.“Green Light” has not been released in mainland China, but many internet users there appeared to be able to watch it through unofficial channels. Douban, a Chinese platform where users can review movies, books and music, indicated Thursday that around 38,000 users had watched the film. More