California-based venture capitalist Imaad Zuberi, a major donor to President Donald Trump's inaugural committee, has been charged with criminally obstructing an investigation into whether the inauguration accepted illegal donations from foreign sources.
The Associated Press reports that federal prosecutors claim that Zuberi took "numerous" steps to illegally thwart their probe into Trump's inaugural committee that included backdating a $50,000 check and deleting relevant emails.
Prosecutors have also said that Zuberi made a $900,000 donation to Trump's inauguration that "was in fact funded using money obtained from other sources," although it did not name the specific sources of the donation.
The Trump inaugural committee itself has so far not been charged with any wrongdoing and prosecutors say that members of the committee were not informed that Zuberi's donation actually came from other sources.
Zuberi last year agreed to plead guilty to felony tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions from non-U.S. sources.