Watchdog hits shadowy group with ‘straw donor’ complaint

Campaign Legal Center filed a “straw donor” complaint, shared exclusively with The Hill, alleging a mysterious group funneled more than $1 million into a super PAC shortly before the 2024 general election to conceal the true source of the funds.

The Delaware-based Stop China Now Inc. gave $1.6 million to the super PAC, Save Western Culture, which spent nearly $1.4 million on provocative ads, mailers and robocalls attacking Republican candidates and praising their libertarian contenders in tight House and Senate races, effectively boosting the Democratic candidate.

Because of the timing of the donation, Save Western Culture, which formed on Oct. 11, did not disclose the donation until after election day, leaving voters in the dark about who was trying to influence their ballots.

The true source of the funds remains obscured behind Stop China Now, which formed on Oct. 3 and shares a mailing address with Save Western Culture — a UPS mailbox in Greenfield, Mass. Campaign finance experts previously told The Hill that these facts raise “several red flags."

“Overall, these facts indicate that the super PAC and the apparent straw donor were organized by the same unknown person(s) for the purpose of unlawfully concealing the true source(s) of this $1.6 million contribution, which was used to make over $1.3 million in independent expenditures during the final weeks before the 2024 election,” Campaign Legal Center alleged in the complaint.

Seth Martin, who is listed as both the super PAC treasurer and nonprofit incorporator, did not respond to a request for comment via Save Western Culture’s listed email address.

Stop China Now’s only online presence appears to be a bare-bones website that states its mission to oppose “the influence of Communist governments in American public policy” and a Facebook page with no followers, likes or posts, Campaign Legal Center found.

Campaign Legal Center called the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the government agency tasked with enforcing campaign finance law, to investigate the alleged straw donor.

“The use of a straw donor,” Campaign Legal Center wrote, “fundamentally undermines the basic transparency required under [the Federal Election Campaign Act], which is essential to empower voters to participate in elections with full knowledge of who is spending money to influence their vote and to protect elections against real or apparent corruption.”

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