Terror-Linked CAIR Caught in $27M Taxpayer Ripoff

Explosive report shows terror-linked CAIR–CA misused millions, hid lobbying, and funded radical operations while Uuder federal probe.

CAIR funded jihadis behind violent antisemitic protests.

For decades, the terror linked group CAIR has been actively working towards “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions. This is their stated mission by objective. And for years my colleagues and I have reported, exposed, and laid bare their treachery and destruction. The worse and more pervasive their actions, the more the Democrats and their media monkeys lauded and exalted them while demonizing us.

Related: Texas Brands CAIR ‘TERROR GROUP’ — State Bans Land Buys, Cracks Down on Networks

BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: CAIR–California Exposed for $27 Million in Taxpayer-Funded Abuse, Illegal Lobbying, and Extremist Political Operations

By: Amy Mek, RAIR Foundation, November 18, 2025:

CAIR–California took nearly $27 million in taxpayer money, delivered a fraction of the services it was funded for, concealed millions in lobbying, falsified federal tax forms, funneled refugee funds back into its own offices, and used public grants to support Hamas-aligned activism — all while under active federal investigation. This is not mismanagement. This is a taxpayer-funded political machine hiding behind a 501(c)(3).

The largest Islamic political organization in America — CAIR–California — has been caught in what may be one of the most brazen cases of public-fund abuse, undisclosed lobbying, and extremist-aligned political activity ever uncovered inside a U.S. nonprofit.

A newly released 14-page investigative report by Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN) reveals that CAIR-CA has misused, diverted, or concealed tens of millions of taxpayer dollars while simultaneously elevating Hamas-aligned activists and interfering in U.S. political processes — all under the legal protection of a 501(c)(3). The report draws on Public Records Act disclosures, financial audits, internal CAIR accounting patterns, and formal state and federal complaints, documenting a systemic pattern of deception.

Since 2022, CAIR-CA has taken in over $26.9 million in taxpayer funding, watched its own revenue nearly double, and yet delivered virtually none of the services it was paid to provide. In just one year, CAIR-CA’s annual revenue skyrocketed from $9 million in 2022 to $17.4 million in 2023 — a doubling driven almost entirely by taxpayer-funded grants. This growth coincided precisely with large infusions of federal Afghanistan-related funding and California’s “Stop the Hate” program, both of which CAIR quickly converted into internal cash-flow streams and political resources.

Instead, millions appear to have been self-dealt, secretly redirected, or funneled into illegal lobbying and political organizing. The report also shows CAIR-CA manipulated its public reporting to erase entire categories of government funding, subgrants, and related-party transactions, hiding the true scale of these internal money flows from the IRS and state regulators.

And despite being under federal and state investigation, the group continues to receive more public money. In July 2025, the Trump administration approved another $10 million in federal trust-fund grants for CAIR, even while the DOJ and California FPPC investigations were still active — a stunning oversight failure that allowed CAIR to expand its political operations using taxpayer dollars.

Welcome to the CAIR machine — a political empire operating with taxpayer cash, zero accountability from our government, and decades of extremist baggage the media refuses to expose.

KEY FINDING #1 — CAIR Misused Millions Meant for Afghan Refugees

In 2021–2023, the United States awarded CAIR-Los Angeles $7.2 million specifically to provide legal aid to 1,800 Afghan refugees — people fleeing Taliban rule after the disastrous Biden withdrawal.

According to CAIR’s own filings, they delivered services to:

Only 177 Afghan refugees — just 9.8% of what they were funded to do
20 Afghan naturalization applicants out of 172 total
74 Afghan immigration applicants out of 137 total

The rest of the taxpayer-funded help went to:

Mexican nationals
Chinese nationals
Russians
Iranians

— all populations explicitly prohibited by the federal grant. Many of these individuals were citizens of nations considered adversarial or high-risk by U.S. intelligence assessments, which raises further national-security concerns about why CAIR opted to serve these groups instead of the intended Afghan population.

In total, more than 70% of all individuals served under the Afghan-only grant were not Afghan refugees — a direct violation of federal grant terms. CAIR-CA even provided naturalization services to 42 Mexican nationals — more than twice the number of Afghan refugees who received the same service.

In other words: Funds meant for Afghan war refugees who were allowed to come to America after helping our military were illegally used for entirely different immigrant populations — including nationals of hostile foreign governments. The report shows these misallocations were not isolated errors but repeated quarter after quarter, reflected in every set of CAIR’s ALSP filings.

This alone triggers potential violations of the False Claims Act, federal grant law, and criminal fraud statutes.

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KEY FINDING #2 — CAIR-CA Diverted $3.6 Million in a Circular Money Scheme

The Afghan grant required CAIR-CA to distribute at least $5 million to approximately 40 independent service providers.

Instead, CAIR secretly diverted $3.6 million back into its own Los Angeles office, despite CAIR-LA not being a separate legal entity.

This is a circular self-payment scheme — a classic red flag for:

Self-dealing
Conflict of interest
Grant fraud
Books-and-records falsification

The diversion was so blatant that CAIR listed itself both as the “grantee” and the “sub-grantee” on official documents, falsely presenting an internal transfer as if it were an external partnership. The report also notes that CAIR-LA lacked independent legal or tax status, meaning the subgrant did not — and could not — meet federal requirements.

The documentation shows CAIR was effectively paying itself with federal cash while claiming those funds were being used by “external subgrantees.”

If any other nonprofit attempted this, the DOJ would already be issuing subpoenas.

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KEY FINDING #3 — CAIR Hid Over $3.13 Million in Lobbying Expenses

For ten years, CAIR-CA reported $672,000 in lobbying to the IRS.
But their actual expenditures exceed $3.8 million — a fivefold difference.

Meaning 78% of CAIR’s lobbying was concealed from federal regulators. At the same time, CAIR-CA:

Was not registered as a lobbying employer in California
Was not registered at the federal level
Continued receiving federal grants (which cannot be used for lobbying)
Organized legislative campaigns while portraying itself as a humanitarian nonprofit

The organization actively pushed political outcomes such as legislative redistricting maps and opposition to antisemitism-related protections in California schools, all while receiving federal funding.

This likely violates:

The Political Reform Act
The Lobbying Disclosure Act
IRS 501(c)(3) restrictions
31 U.S.C. §1352 (prohibiting use of federal funds for lobbying)

This type of concealment is not an accounting error; it is an intentional misrepresentation. The report emphasizes that CAIR’s undeclared lobbying costs surged at the exact moment its federal funding increased, suggesting a direct commingling of taxpayer dollars with political influence campaigns.

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KEY FINDING #4 — CAIR-CA Filed False and Misleading Federal Tax Forms

The report documents extensive concealment in CAIR-CA’s IRS Form 990 filings:

Millions in government grants were hidden under vague “contributions”
Required subgrant disclosures were omitted
Schedule I vanished entirely in 2023
Related-party transactions were concealed, hiding the true flow of taxpayer money

In addition, CAIR removed Schedule R disclosures, hiding the financial relationships between CAIR-CA and its regional chapters, even though those relationships involved millions in federal funds.

These are potential violations of:

26 U.S.C. §7206 — filing false returns
18 U.S.C. §1001 — false statements to federal authorities
California’s False Claims Act

This pattern suggests deliberate concealment, not oversight. The report shows that these omissions align perfectly with the timeline of CAIR-CA’s sudden grant-funded revenue explosion, which raises obvious questions about intent.

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KEY FINDING #5 — Taxpayer Funds Intersect With Pro-Hamas Activism

Despite receiving $2.6 million in “Stop the Hate” grants from California, CAIR leadership publicly:

• Celebrated Hamas-linked figures
• Promoted “martyrs”
• Encouraged anti-Israel encampments
• Directed supporters to donate supplies to campus occupations
• Organized political agitation on campuses during ongoing federal funding cycles

At the same time, CAIR actively built and financed a “student resistance” ecosystem that mirrored Hamas-aligned messaging, including:

• Teach-ins led by CAIR directors
• Legal and financial aid for radical activists
• Hiring student protestors who lost jobs due to extremist behavior

According to the NCRI–IAN report, CAIR-CA created an “Education Fund” — later rebranded as the “Champions of Justice Fund” — specifically to support pro-encampment students. The fund solicited over $64,000 and distributed $20,000 in scholarships and emergency assistance to 20 students as of October 2024.

Separately, a CAIR-promoted encampment donation campaign raised more than $100,000, illustrating how CAIR leveraged charitable branding to financially reinforce disruptive campus activism.

CAIR leaders — including the statewide CEO — directly participated in encampments, delivering sermons, coordinating strategy sessions, and amplifying protest messaging. These activities are wholly incompatible with the goals of California’s taxpayer-funded “Stop the Hate” program and may violate both state and federal restrictions.

Subsequent media coverage shows that CAIR’s California network marketed these funds to students who had lost housing, scholarships, or disciplinary standing for leading radical encampments — effectively transforming taxpayer-supported infrastructure into a reward system for the most aggressive anti-Israel agitators.

One case reported in the press involved a Harvard Law graduate who took part in an anti-Israel “die-in,” was arrested after accosting a Jewish student, later received a prestigious fellowship, and ultimately went to work for CAIR-Los Angeles — a textbook example of how elite institutions and CAIR’s political apparatus now function as a seamless pipeline for radical activists.

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KEY FINDING #6 — CAIR-CA Remains Under Federal Investigation, Yet Continues Receiving Millions

CAIR-CA is already under active investigation by:

U.S. Department of Justice (EOIR)
California Fair Political Practices Commission

Yet despite open investigations into fraud and illegal lobbying, the Biden administration approved another $10 million in federal trust funds for CAIR in July 2025.

This is a catastrophic oversight failure and a national security risk. Regulators ignored DOJ warnings, active FPPC case files, and years of documented compliance red flags — effectively rewarding CAIR with more taxpayer cash at the height of its misconduct.

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THE CAIR PATTERN: Extremism, Deception, and Foreign Influence

None of this should surprise anyone familiar with CAIR’s history. The organization has operated under a cloud of extremism and dishonesty for decades.

CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing prosecution in American history — the Holy Land Foundation case. In the aftermath, the FBI formally cut all ties with CAIR, citing concerns over terrorism support and the group’s connections to Hamas.

Continued…..