CNN reported that Yogesh Gandhi used funds solicited for his Gandhi Memorial International Foundation, in order to pay off his own personal debts. In 1996, the Democratic National Committee had to give back $325,000 to Yogesh Gandhi, because they could not verify that he was the source of the donations. Gandhi refused to supply proof of the money's origins, and maintained that it had come from his own personal sources. The contribution had been the single largest received by the Democratic Party in 1996. An investigation by the United States Senate determined that these funds initially came from a Japanese national. The donation had originally been solicited from Yogesh Gandhi by Democratic Party fund-raiser Charles Yah Lin Trie.
