Criminal fraud case against major Democrat donor Ibrahim AlHusseini dismissed

AlHusseini was accused of involvement in a US$150 million fraud case linked to Aspiration Partners.

Acting US Attorney for the Central District of California, Joseph McNally, dismissed a criminal case against Ibrahim AlHusseini, a major Democrat Party donor, two days after Donald Trump became president. AlHusseini had been accused of being involved in a US$150 million fraud relating to company called Aspiration Partners.

Aspiration was incorporated in the tax haven of Delaware in July 2013. It was founded by Joe Sanberg and Andrei Cherny. Sanberg made his fortune working on Wall Street, then moved to investing in start-ups. Cherny is a lawyer and political speechwriter who has worked for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Barack Obama.

Aspiration offers investment funds and banking services that are “good for your wallet and the planet”. The company claimed to have “one of the largest tree-planting programs in the world”. But Aspiration was exaggerating the number of trees it had planted.

It also bought and sold carbon credits. In 2021, Aspiration sold US$56 million worth of carbon credits. That’s almost double what the company raised from digital banking.

Aspiration under investigation

By 2023, the company was booming. It had a sponsorship deal with the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, a deal with the International Finance Corporation, and in 2023 Meta signed an agreement to buy 6.75 million carbon credits from Aspiration.

But in 2024, the Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission launched an investigation into whether Aspiration had misled customers about the quality of carbon offsets it was selling.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bloomberg uncovered a series of “dubious deals that inflated the company’s revenue”. These included an orthodox synagogue in Beverley Hills that signed a letter of intent to pay US$25,000 per month to Aspiration for tree-planting projects. A non-profit organisation agreed to pay US$300,000 per month. ETZ Partners LLC agreed to a multimillion-dollar tree planting deal. And millions of dollars was funnelled through a company called Day 12 Partners.

Ibrahim AlHusseini arrested

In October 2024, Ibrahim AlHusseini, an ex-board member and investor in Aspiration, was arrested. He was accused of securities fraud.

As a result of the alleged fraud, one investor lost more than US$150 million. Meanwhile, according to the criminal complaint filed with the Central District of California Court, “AlHusseini personally received more than $12 million in ill-gotten gains.”

AlHusseini gave more than US$300,000 to the Democrats. He was on the board of CodePink. In 2019, an interview with AlHusseini was published in the Sierra Club magazine under the headline, “Yes, Reversing the Climate Crisis Can Be Profitable”.

After he was arrested, various people, including Jodie Evans, CodePink’s founder, put up their homes to contribute to AlHusseini’s bail. He was considered a flight risk. AlHusseini had to hand in his Saudi Arabia and US passports, as well as his gun. He had to wear a GPS ankle monitor.

The FBI’s criminal complaint provided detailed evidence of AlHusseini’s alleged fraud.

Order for Dismissal

But on 22 January 2025, two days after Trump’s inauguration, acting US Attorney Joseph McNally dismissed the complaint against AlHusseini without giving any explanation.

The Order for Dismissal, filed on 22 January 2025, states (in full):

A Magistrate’s Complaint having been filed before the United States Magistrate Alka Sagar in Los Angeles, California, against the above-named defendant, charging violation of Title 15, United States Code, Sections 78j(b), 78ff, and Title 17, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 240.10b-5, the Acting United States Attorney having moved for a dismissal of the complaint by the presentment of this Order,
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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that said Complaint be dismissed as to defendant IBRAHIM AMEEN ALHUSSEINI only without prejudice and that defendant be released if in custody solely on this charge, or if not, that bond, if any, be exonerated on this charge.

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UPDATE - 5 March 2025: On 21 January 2025 a new case was filed against Ibrahim AlHusseini. The previous case was dismissed so that AlHusseini could cooperate in the prosecution of others. On 7 February 2025, AlHusseini signed a plea agreement. The following four paragraphs of this post about why the case was dismissed are not just speculation, but completely wrong.

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McNally used the gap between the resignation of Biden’s US Attorney for the Central District of California and the Trump appointed replacement to dismiss the case. (Trump has still not appointed a US Attorney for the Central District of California.)

It seems obvious that McNally’s dismissal of this case was because AlHusseini is a major donor to the Democrat Party and one of Aspiration’s founders has close links to the Democrat Party. The dismissal appears to have nothing to do with the case itself.

Trump’s Department of Justice could restore the case against AlHusseini. But in the meantime AlHusseini is free to leave the US. The fact that the bond has been exonerated means that the people who contributed to AlHuseini’s bail would not lose their homes.

AlHusseini has addresses in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, neither of which have extradition treaties with the US.