New York – A resident of Flushing, New York, Dao Yin, is facing allegations of fraudulently obtaining over $160,000 in public matching campaign funds from the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board (PCFB) by submitting fictitious donation cards during the campaign period from May 2023 to June 2024. He has been indicted by the Eastern District of New York federal prosecutors and was arrested on Friday morning, June 13th.
Dao Yin, 62, originally from China, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2012. During the 2024 election cycle, he ran for the primary election for the New York State Assembly seat in the 40th district, which includes Flushing. According to the New York City Board of Elections data, he received only about 185 votes in the primaries, with a vote share of around 5.9%, failing to advance. Previously, he also ran for Queens Borough President in 2020 and for the City Council seat in the 20th district of Flushing in 2021, but was unsuccessful in both attempts.
In 2024, Dao Yin registered a campaign committee named “Yin Dao for New York 2024,” serving as the finance director himself and applying to participate in PCFB’s public campaign finance matching program. He was the sole contact person for the committee with the PCFB, attempting to secure public funding by soliciting small donations from residents.
According to PCFB records, Dao Yin completed the mandatory training required for participation in the matching fund program, signed a statement on the candidate certification form acknowledging that providing false statements could constitute a crime, and stating his ultimate responsibility for campaign finances.
Under the PCFB regulations, candidates for state assembly must raise at least $6,000 in qualified donations from at least 75 residents of the district to be eligible for public fund matching. The prosecutors allege that between June 2023 and March 2024, Dao Yin submitted over 200 donation cards to the PCFB, claiming them to be cash donations from residents and seeking $162,800 in matching funds. However, many of these donation cards were found to have fake signatures and used false names.
As most donations were collected in cash, a form that is difficult to trace, the PCFB requested Dao Yin to provide email addresses or phone numbers of donors for verification of their eligibility for matching funds and advised him to send “Good Faith Letters” to donors to obtain missing information.
In early April 2024, Dao Yin submitted copies of Good Faith Letters to the PCFB, claiming to have sent them as instructed. Subsequently, PCFB accepted his statement, deeming the supplemental request fulfilled. On June 3, 2024, PCFB disbursed $162,800 of matching funds to his campaign account through the State Comptroller’s office.
However, just before the primary election began, on June 11, 2024, media reports surfaced, revealing that Dao Yin was suspected of using false names to fabricate donations to misappropriate public funds. The next day, in an interview with a Chinese media outlet, he admitted that his campaign team had made “some mistakes” and stated that they would cooperate with the investigation, emphasizing that compliance with the law was their goal.
On June 24, 2024, the media once again reported that Dao Yin was suspected of forging signatures on donation cards and Good Faith Letters. According to the indictment, a week after the news went public, Dao Yin used WeChat on his Apple iCloud account to indicate that he had deleted past WeChat and text message records, possibly destroying evidence.
Subsequently, the FBI conducted visits to several individuals listed as “donors” on the cards between August and December, and they all denied making donations. Some even claimed they had never heard of Dao Yin or his campaign activities, nor did they receive Good Faith Letters. Some donation cards had the “last name” mistakenly placed before the “first name,” displaying a possible naming convention from a Chinese background that did not match the donors’ ethnic or cultural backgrounds.
In late October of the same year, the FBI conducted a search of Dao Yin’s residence with a court-authorized warrant and discovered multiple forged donation cards and Good Faith Letters. Some of these letters were never sent out, while others were returned by the postal service. Additionally, investigators found Google email addresses on several cards that were not in the original submission to the PCFB. According to Google records, these email addresses were either nonexistent or unrelated to the donors.
Citing Yahoo records, the indictment also alleged that between February and March 2024, Dao Yin had sent at least two emails from his Yahoo account to the PCFB, in a peculiar arrangement. Despite both the PCFB and Dao Yin’s campaign office being in New York, these emails were sent through Yahoo’s servers in Nebraska, not New York, potentially constituting interstate communication fraud.
Yesterday, June 13, federal prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella, Jr., Matthew R. Galeotti, Christopher G. Raia from the FBI New York office, and Jocelyn E. Strauber, Director of the New York City Investigation Bureau, jointly announced criminal charges against Dao Yin.
Nocella stated, “According to the charges, the defendant, a former candidate for public office, submitted forged donation cards representing donations from community members he hoped to represent, thus deceiving and unlawfully obtaining public matching funds for which he was ineligible. Today’s arrest underscores this office’s commitment to defending the integrity of elections and vigorously prosecuting candidates who violate campaign finance laws.”
Dao Yin’s attorney, Benjamin Silverman, responded to The Epoch Times, stating that Dao Yin was released pending trial after appearing in court yesterday and was not required to post bail. He added, “Dao Yin is a hardworking immigrant who sought to achieve his American dream through active participation in the community and seeking public office.”