Top donors to Mamdani PAC worked for tech firm accused of being national security threat with China ties

Two top donors to the super PAC supporting Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral campaign worked for a tech company with alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Omer Hasan, who stepped down in February as vice president of operations for Palo Alto, Calif.-based AppLovin according to his LinkedIn page, gave a whopping $250,000 on Sept. 5 to New Yorkers for Lower Costs, a superPAC that backs socialist Mamdani, records show.

Mohammad Javed, AppLovin’s former director of engineering who left the firm in 2021, donated $251,500 to the political action committee. He also gave $2,100 to Mamdani’s campaign committee.

Neither Hasan nor Javed have been accused of any wrongdoing, and it’s unclear why they left the fast-growing Silicon Valley company, which is trying to acquire TikTok’s former China assets.

However, short-selling firm Culper Research issued a February report accusing AppLovin of illicit backdoor app installations that trick users into downloading malicious software, The Street reported.

In June, Culper issued another scathing report, this time alleging AppLovin is both a bad investment and a national security risk because Chinese national Hao Tang controls at least 9.8% of the company.

“Our research reveals Hao Tang has numerous ties to the CCP, money laundering and human trafficking operations,” said the report, referring to China’s ruling communist party.

The allegations against AppLovin don’t stop there.

Muddy Waters, another short seller, previously alleged AppLovin is “scammy adtech company” that relies on retargeting for e-commerce conversions, and Fuzzy Panda Research earlier this year accused AppLovin of stealing data from Meta Platforms, Benzinga reported.

Hasan, Javed and AppLovin did not return messages.

Applovin CEO Adam Foroughi denied the company has operational ties to China during an April interview with Fox News but said “we are a public company. We got investors all over the world.”

“I don’t know any [investors] that make up a material part of our cap table,” the Iranian-born American billionaire added. “Everyone’s small. I am the largest shareholder in the business — U.S. citizen.”

Hasan claimed he wasn’t employed, and Javed said he was CEO of a company called “Showcase Commerce” when they donated to New Yorkers for Lower Costs, according to filings with the NYC Campaign Finance Board.

Liz Simons, daughter of late hedge-fund billionaire Jim Simons and who The Post reported last week is bankrolling a national push to bring “woke math” to public schools nationwide, also gave $250,000 to the PAC.

She made the donation despite the mayoral-race frontrunner infamously claiming earlier on the campaign trail that billionaire’s shouldn’t exist.

Other big PAC donors include the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ political arm —the Unity & Justice Fund — which gave $100,000; the campaign committee for “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), which gave $25,000; and lefty actresses Cynthia Nixon ($5,000) and Jane Fonda ($1,000).

Mamdani’s campaign deferred comment to the PAC.

Howie Stanger, the PAC’s treasurer and founder of the Los Angeles-based political consulting firm Pocketbook Strategies, did not return messages.