In 2014, the Université de Montréal received a $1 million donation from Chinese billionaires Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, which the university claimed stemmed from a young Chinese student’s positive experience on campus. However, leaked information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) alleges that the donation was actually orchestrated by the Chinese regime in an attempt to influence the potential future prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. The donation was re-announced in 2015 following the Liberals’ election win, and in September 2016, the university’s law faculty wrote about the “historical donation” of $800,000 it received from Zhang and Niu. The Trudeau Foundation was also involved in discussions around the donation, and there were talks of establishing the “Trudeau Education Foundation” at the Faculty of Law. While the university claimed to have no indication that the donation was linked to political interference by a foreign country, the Trudeau Foundation returned the $200,000 portion of the donation it received in 2016 due to concerns about foreign government influence. This caused an internal crisis, leading to the resignation of the foundation’s CEO and entire board of directors.