Bill de Blasio's Donor Linked with Funder of Iran's Nuclear Plants

Public advocate Bill de Blasio, who has long rallied against people who do business with Iran, accepted a check last month from wealthy Democratic donor Jack Rosen, 66, who has a lucrative real-estate deal with a Russian oligarch suspected of funding the construction of one of Iran’s nuclear-power plants, the NY Post reports. 

According to his most recent campaign-finance filing, the Democratic mayoral hopeful accepted $1,000 from Rosen. Rosen teamed up with Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman to invest $1 billion in distressed real estate along the East Coast. Fridman’s Alfa Bank provided financing throughout the 2000s to the state-owned Russian nuclear vendor that installed reactors at Iran’s nuclear plant in Bushehr, according to reports. 

Just a year ago, Mr. de Blasio blasted Nissan for selling its cars to the Iranian regime. “You cannot do business with the people of New York City with one hand, and prop up the dangerous regime in Tehran with the other,” Mr. de Blasio said in his statement. “For our billion dollars, taxpayers and taxi riders deserve a guarantee that Nissan will stop selling its vehicles to Iran.”

The de Blasio in an e-mail response to the Post stated that “Jack Rosen is a stalwart supporter of the Jewish state and a well-respected leader of the American Jewish Congress . . . We are proud to have his support.”