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Documents Shed Light on Cuomo’s Five-Year-Old Donor

A child’s donation highlights New York’s City’s straw donor headaches.

Chris Bragg   ·   October 31, 2025
Contributions to Andrew Cuomo's mayoral campaign from Rabbi Marc Schneier and his five-year-old son were made using two separate American Express cards. | Photos: Diana Robinson/Flickr; rattanakun/Canva | Illustration: Leor Stylar

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Five days after Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral campaign accepted a maximum $2,100 donation from Rabbi Marc Schneier in March, the campaign accepted a far more unusual gift: $250 from the rabbi’s five-year-old son.

The campaign then applied for and received $2,000 in taxpayer funds matching the son’s donation. The problem? A campaign cannot seek taxpayer matching funds for a person under 18.

Cuomo and Burgos

New York City also has a strict legal requirement that donors fund their own contributions, raising questions about how a 5-year-old funded his own donation.

The Cuomo campaign refunded the son’s gift and matching funds after being contacted by the New York Daily News, which first reported the donations. Campaign finance records recently obtained by New York Focus shed more light on the son’s highly unusual donation.

The father’s and son’s contributions were made using two separate American Express cards, the documents show. According to the American Express website, the company cannot legally issue a credit card in the name of a person under 18 years old.

After Schneier’s son ostensibly donated $250, the Cuomo campaign sent him a verification document to sign, affirming that he was a New York City resident, which would allow the campaign to apply for matching funds. The form also asked the five-year-old to affirm in writing that the “credit card used to make this contribution is paid from my person [sic] funds.”

This is an excerpt of the signed document that the campaign received with the son’s affirmation:


The Cuomo campaign sent a similar document to the father, Marc Schneier, asking him to affirm similar statements concerning his $2,100 donation. This is the father’s signature:


Schneier did not respond to a request for comment. He told the Daily News in September that as soon as the newspaper brought the matter to his attention, “we recognized a mistake was made” and that the donation was being returned from the Cuomo campaign.

Schneier’s statement did not elaborate on how the child’s contribution was funded, but said Cuomo “is like family to us” and “our son wanted to help out like mommy and daddy.”

The Cuomo campaign told the Daily News that the Schneiner son’s donation was “refunded immediately.” Records confirm that the campaign refunded the son’s donation on September 10, and that taxpayer matching funds related to the contribution have been returned.

Schneier is the president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which promotes Muslim-Jewish relations, and previously served as chair of the World Jewish Congress. He also founded the Hamptons Synagogue, a modern Orthodox shul in Westhampton Beach that for decades has been a political stop for prominent politicians, including Cuomo. Schneier, who has been married six times, has drawn controversy, including over a history of unpaid child support.

Taxpayer matching funds are meant to boost the value of small-dollar contributions to candidates. For qualifying campaigns, the New York City system matches each individual donation up to $250 with eight times as many matching funds.

Alleged “straw donors” — illegal contributions made in one person’s name but funded by another — have long been a feature of New York political scandals, allowing deep-pocketed donors to circumvent donation limits and trigger more matching funds. They were a prominent part of the now-dropped federal case against Mayor Eric Adams. Schneier has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

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Chris Bragg is the Albany bureau chief at New York Focus. He has done investigative reporting on New York government and politics since 2009, most recently at The Buffalo News and Albany Times Union.
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