The super PAC, Save Western Culture, poured nearly $1.4 million into controversial ads, mailers and robocalls that boosted libertarian candidates and attacked Republicans in battleground Senate and House races, helping Democrats clinch some key seats.
A month after election day, the super PAC disclosed its sole source of funding: A $1.6 million donation from a newly formed Delaware-based nonprofit called Stop China Now Inc.
The donation came one day after books closed on the final campaign finance disclosure before the Nov. 5 general election, leaving voters in the dark about who was trying to influence their vote.
The ultimate source of the funds is still unknown.
Save Western Culture and Stop China Now share an address — a UPS box in Greenfield, Mass. Someone named Seth Martin is listed as both the super PAC treasurer and nonprofit incorporator, according to new business records obtained by The Hill.
The arrangement raises “several red flags justifying further investigation,” said Lee Goodman, a former Republican chair on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) who is now a partner at the legal giant Wiley.
Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance lawyer and deputy executive director at Documented, said the initial facts suggest this is a “straw donor scheme.”
“In a potential straw donor case, the central question is whether funds were intentionally funneled through a conduit to disguise the true source of the contribution,” Fischer said.
But the fact that Stop China Now is a nonprofit complicates that analysis.
The Hill's Taylor Giorno has more here.
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