CREW, CLC seek to find hidden donors in super PAC money laundering case

Unnamed donors who funneled nearly $2 million through a series of entities to a super PAC in an effort to keep their names off the contribution should not be allowed to remain anonymous, according to a motion to intervene filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in Doe v. FEC.

Campaign Legal Center serves as co-counsel in the case.

Following a CREW complaint, the FEC agreed to a $350,000 fine — a post-Citizens United record for a complaint from an outside group — with Government Integrity, LLC, the American Conservative Union and the Now or Never PAC for one of the clearest cases of dark money laundering in memory.

The LLC used ACU — known for its annual CPAC conference that's featured a number of Wisconsin conservatives, including Paul Ryan and Scott Walker — to launder $1.71 million to the super PAC, for which ACU pocketed $90,000.

However, it is unknown where the funds originated.

“This is one of the more blatant conduit contribution schemes we’ve seen,” CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement to the press. “We need to know where it began and who has worked so hard — in violation of the law — to keep their contribution and their participation in this scheme secret.”

By a split decision, the FEC failed to adopt its general counsel’s recommendation to go after the originators of the contribution, an unnamed trust and trustee.

CREW sued the FEC over this decision two weeks ago.

In an unusual move, a trust and its trustee involved in the scheme — either as passthroughs themselves or as the original donor — sued the FEC in an attempt to keep their names from becoming public.

CREW is moving to intervene as defendants.

“Federal law gives voters the right to know who spends millions of dollars to get candidates elected,” said Adav Noti, CLC’s senior director for trial litigation. “In this case, major political donors are trying to hide their identities by laundering money through shell companies and trusts. That has been illegal for decades, and this lawsuit will help uncover who is behind the political money-laundering conspiracy.”