A shady international hotel baron and heavyweight Democratic fundraiser pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally contributing to federal campaigns through straw donors between 2007 and 2011.
Shant Singh Chatwal — a close pal of the Clintons — faces up to five years in prison after copping to reimbursing donors who contributed to three unnamed candidates running for federal office, Brooklyn federal court papers state.
The founder of Hampshire Hotels — whose playboy son once dated Lindsay Lohan and Gisele Bündchen — was felled by a pair of confidential informants who blew the lid off his illegal fundraising practices.
“As the central figure in this conspiracy, Chatwal recruited, directly and indirectly, numerous straw donors to make campaign contributions to the candidates,” according to court papers.
In 2007, Chatwal, now 70, told a construction contractor that he wanted to gather straw donors to raise illicit funds for a politician referred to as “Candidate A” in court papers. He told the associate — who later turned snitch — that all donations would be reimbursed, papers state.
Chatwal also sought to raise funds for another candidate to persuade him to help with a regulatory hurdle that was hampering his business, prosecutors said.
In a recorded conversation with an associate, Chatwal discussed the importance of political contributions. “Without them, nobody will even talk to you,” he said. “When they are in need of money … the money you give them, they are always there for you. That’s the only way to buy them, get into the system. What, what else is there? That’s the only thing.”
Chatwal also used associates to gather straw contributions for a third politician in 2010, papers state.
The businessman also pleaded guilty to witness tampering after he lobbied an accomplice to keep his trap shut after he was visited by federal agents looking into the shifty contributions in 2012.
He later told him to deny that he had any incriminating checks. “If you don’t have the checks, they have nothing,” he said during a recorded conversation. “It’s very simple.”
Wearing a bright red turban, a dark suit, a pink dress shirt and crimson leather shoes, Chatwal agreed to pay $1 million restitution before his sentencing date of July 31. He was released on $750,000 bail after putting up a Manhattan property as collateral.
Chatwal said nothing as he left court, but his publicist handed out a statement from the embattled businessman.
“Mr. Chatwal deeply regrets his actions and accepts full responsibility for the consequences,” the statement read. “He looks forward to resolving this personal matter.”
Chatwal raised more than $100,000 for Hillary Clinton’s bruising 2008 primary campaign against Barack Obama.
He was also one of the bigshot donors and celebrities invited to President Obama’s first official dinner in 2009.
An active member of the Indian and Sikh communities in America, Chatwal was a guest at then-President Bill Clinton’s state dinner for India in 2000.
“The Election Act’s spending limits are in place to limit financial influence in federal elections and to ensure transparency as to the identity of donors,” said US Attorney Loretta Lynch after the plea. “Chatwal sought to buy access to power through unlimited and illegal campaign contributions, funneling money from the shadows through straw donors.”