{"id":1493731,"date":"2024-10-03T16:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1493731"},"modified":"2024-10-03T16:05:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T20:05:00","slug":"coalition-of-19-gop-ags-launch-investigation-into-actblue-over-money-laundering-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/coalition-of-19-gop-ags-launch-investigation-into-actblue-over-money-laundering-allegations\/1493731\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition Of 19 GOP AGs Launch Investigation Into ActBlue Over Money Laundering Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coalition Of 19 GOP AGs Launch Investigation Into ActBlue Over Money Laundering Allegations<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A coalition of 19 Republican state attorneys general have launched a criminal investigation into the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue over allegations of money laundering.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

As\u00a0American Greatness<\/a>\u00a0reported in April, multiple independent investigative journalists, including\u00a0O\u2019Keefe Media Group (OMG)\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Election Watch<\/a>\u00a0have uncovered what appears to be illegal activity involving millions of dollars in campaign donations to Act Blue that have been laundered through unwitting small donors.<\/p>\n

The process of breaking up large donations and submitting them under the names of small donors to cover up illegal contributions has been dubbed \u201csmurfing.\u201d<\/strong> Suspicions that ActBlue routinely engages in this type of illicit fundraising have dogged the outfit since at least\u00a0Joe Biden\u2019s presidential campaign in 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Committee on House Administration, chaired by Congressman Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.),\u00a0launched an investigation<\/a>\u00a0into Act Blue in November of 2023 to look into reports that the fundraising giant was skirting campaign donation laws and allowing rampant fraud on the site. The committee\u00a0widened its probe<\/a>\u00a0in August 2024.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to top officials on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on August 5, Steil urged them to \u201cimmediately initiate an emergency rulemaking to require political campaigns to verify the card verification value (\u2018CVV\u2019) of donors who contribute online using a credit or debit card, and to prohibit political campaigns from accepting online contributions from a gift card or other prepaid credit cards.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In September, Steil\u00a0sent letters to five states,<\/a>\u00a0urging them to launch criminal investigations into ActBlue\u2019s alleged illicit activities, citing three specific areas of concern:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Donations significantly disproportionate to an individual\u2019s net worth or previous giving history.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Uncharacteristic donations from party-affiliated registered voters suddenly contributing to candidates of the opposing party.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Unusually frequent donations from elderly individuals or first-time donors.<\/em><\/p>\n

The number of GOP AGs involved in the effort has since swelled to 19.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the 19 Republican Attorney\u2019s General sent\u00a0a letter<\/a>\u00a0to ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones demanding information and explanations regarding the suspicious donations.<\/p>\n

Recent reporting suggests that that there may be donors across the country who are identified in filings with the Federal Election Commission as having donated to candidates through ActBlue (and other affiliated entities), but who did not actually make those donations. That raises a host of concerns about whether ActBlue\u2019s platform is being used to facilitate \u201csmurfing\u201d\u2013\u2013a type of money laundering in which donors break up large donations and submit them under different names to disguise who the money comes from and thereby skirt contribution limits in violation of state and federal law.<\/p>\n

As one former FEC commissioner recently explained, wealthy donors\u2014some of whom are foreign nationals and therefore barred from donating to federal candidates at all\u2014can employ complicated schemes like this to make donations in others\u2019 names. This concern is not hypothetical. Indeed, in an indictment filed last week in federal court, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that a major U.S. political figure knowingly participated in such a scheme in a recent election cycle to receive contributions from a foreign national through straw donors. Further, the apparent irregularities in FEC filings also raise concerns about whether ActBlue\u2019s fundraising methods are deceptive and properly safeguard donor\u2019s data privacy.<\/p>\n

Some of us and our colleagues have raised these concerns with you directly, and at least one senator has raised these concerns with the FEC. Independent investigations have shown that there are donors across the country who show up on FEC filings as having donated to candidates through ActBlue (and other affiliated entities) but deny having made those donations. Given the prominent role it plays in our elections, it is incumbent on ActBlue to address the serious questions created by apparent irregularities in ActBlue\u2019s FEC filings.<\/p>\n

ActBlue is one of the largest fundraising platforms for election-related donations. Already during the 2024 election cycle ActBlue has raised billions of dollars. But there are concerns about where those dollars came from. It is essential that we know whether political donations\u2014particularly in such large volumes\u2014are being solicited, made, and processed consistent with campaign finance, consumer protection, and other state and federal laws. We, the chief legal officers of Iowa, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming ask that you explain what measures you have in place to ensure that donations made through your platform follow State and federal law.<\/p>\n

Just as important, we ask for clarification as to what measures you take to make sure that the donors identified as donating via the ActBlue platform are who they claim. If individuals are inadvertently donating to political campaigns, are misled into making repeat donations, or are having donations made in their name that they do not wish to make, that could violate election-related disclosures or state consumer fraud statutes. Our States\u2019 citizens deserve to know that those facilitating election-related financing are following State and federal laws. Thus we appreciate the assurances that you will provide in answering our questions promptly before the upcoming elections in November.<\/p>\n

The AGs demanded a response to the the following requests for information no later than October 23, 2024:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Confirmation that ActBlue requires CVV numbers for all donations made via credit card.<\/em><\/p>\n

2. A description of when and under what circumstances ActBlue first\u00a0decided to require donors to submit CVV numbers.<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Confirmation that ActBlue requires a legitimate address that is tied to the credit or debit card that a donor uses to make a contribution.<\/em><\/p>\n

4. An explanation of how ActBlue ensures that all donors are persons legally allowed to make donations in the election to which they are donating.<\/em><\/p>\n

5. An explanation of whether and how ActBlue\u2019s operations are consistent with industry standards for securely processing credit card or other payment transactions.<\/em><\/p>\n

6. A description of any measures ActBlue utilizes to ensure compliance with 52 U.S.C. \u00a7 30121, including whether ActBlue follows the guidance provided by the FEC in FEC Advisory Opinion (AO) 1998-14 on how to identify the nationality of donors.<\/em><\/p>\n

7. A description of how ActBlue\u2019s platform facilitates automatic, recurring donations from donors and what safeguards ActBlue has in place to ensure that donors do not inadvertently contribute more than they intend.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 10\/03\/2024 – 12:05<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/coalition-19-gop-ags-launch-investigation-actblue-over-money-laundering-allegations<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coalition Of 19 GOP AGs Launch Investigation Into ActBlue Over Money Laundering Allegations Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness, A coalition of 19 Republican…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1493732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1493731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6gAr","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/GettyImages-2167484298-scaled-e1-CqArB3.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1493732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}