An independent ethics watchdog has filed a complaint against 1820 PAC, the Washington DC-based Super PAC run by Collins’ corporate special interest backers, for accepting a six figure contribution from a shady company that appears to be a front group for a straw donor scheme.

 

New reporting from The Daily Beast lays out how the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers LLC donated $150,000 to 1820 PAC just over one month after the company was formed. The company has no website or online presence, or any record of conducting business, suggesting that it was set up solely to make political contributions and conceal the true source of the funds.

 

The Daily Beast: Susan Collins’ Campaign Is Being Helped by a Mysterious Hawaii Company

 

By Lachlan Markey

February 3, 2020

 

Key Points:

 

  • A mysterious Hawaii company may have illegally funneled a six-figure contribution to a political group boosting an embattled Republican Senator 5,000 miles away, an ethics watchdog alleged on Monday.

 

  • The company, Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers LLC, was formed in late November, according to corporate records in Hawaii. Just over a month later, on December 31, the company donated $150,000 to 1820 PAC, a deep-pocketed super PAC with ties to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that was created to help reelect Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

 

  • There is scant public information about the company. It does not appear to have a website or any social media presence. Its listed address is a P.O. box in Honolulu (listed as a “unit” number in 1820’s FEC filings). Google searches turn up no information on the company. And there’s no record of prior political involvement by its sole officer, Jennifer Lam.

 

  • All of that suggests that the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers was set up for the sole purpose of making political contributions, according to the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a complaint on Monday asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate its December contribution to 1820 PAC,

 

  • “The available facts do not suggest that SYWSE conducted any business or had sufficient income from assets, investment earnings, business revenues, or bona fide capital investments to cover the $150,000 contribution to 1820 PAC at the time the contribution was made, without an infusion of funds provided to them for that purpose,” the group wrote.

 

  • CLC goes on to suggest that the group likely made an illegal straw donation designed to conceal the true source of the funds.

 

  • At the very least, CLC claims in the complaint filed on Monday that the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers should be required to disclose the sources of the funds it used to donate to 1820 PAC.

 

  • 1820 PAC is one of the most prominent super PACs in the fight over control of the U.S. Senate, which could very much rest on Collins’ ability to hold her seat in the 2020 elections. As The Daily Beast has reported, 1820 PAC has notable ties to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobby and a heavy hitter in national politics. 

 

  • 1820 PAC has raised more than $1.5 million for its pro-Collins campaign. Its top donors include prominent financial services executives Stephen Schwarzman and Warren Stephens. The group has reported just $500 in contributions from donors in Maine.

 

Read the full story here.

 

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