News
Trump fully commutes the sentence of Zuberi, man who defrauded Sri Lanka
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa
US President Donald Trump has fully commuted the 12-year prison term of venture capitalist and political fundraiser Imaad Zuberi, who was sentenced in 2021 for, among other things, stealing money from the Sri Lankan government.
Mr. Zuberi was also convicted of falsifying records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level US government officials; evading the payment of millions of dollars in taxes; making illegal campaign contributions; and obstructing a federal investigation into the source of donations to a presidential inauguration committee.
On May 22, 2025, President Trump issued an “Executive Grant of Clemency” that brought into effect the immediate commutation of Mr. Zuberi’s entire sentence to “time served with no further fines, restitution, probation, or other conditions”.
According to a statement from the US Department of Justice (issued in 2021 upon his sentencing), one of the offences Mr. Zuberi was convicted of was pocketing the fees he had charged from the Sri Lankan government, which hired him in 2014 to rehabilitate the country’s image after the end of the war.
“Zuberi promised to make substantial expenditures on lobbying efforts, legal expenses, and media buys, which prompted Sri Lanka to agree to pay Zuberi a total of $8.5 million over the course of six months in 2014,” the statement said. “Days after Sri Lanka made an initial payment of $3.5 million, Zuberi transferred $1.6 million into his personal brokerage accounts and used another $1.5 million to purchase real estate.”
In total, Sri Lanka wired $6.5 million pursuant to the contract, and Zuberi used more than $5.65 million of that money to the benefit of himself and his wife,” it continued.
“Zuberi paid less than $850,000 to lobbyists, public relations firms and law firms, and refused to pay certain subcontractors based on false claims that Sri Lanka had not provided sufficient funds to pay invoices,” the DOJ said.
In 2014-2015, the Sunday Times exposed how the Sri Lankan government under then President Mahinda Rajapaksa had engaged Mr. Zuberi, who purported to be a lobbyist. His payments were made bypassing the Cabinet and Parliament, through the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, to evade oversight.
US media reported that Mr. Zuberi became a major Trump donor following his first electoral victory in 2016.
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