Coalition of 19 Republican Attorney General Launch Probe Into ActBlue for Alleged Money Laundering

  |  
Oct 6, 2024

According to a report by Debra Heine of American Greatness, on October 1, 2024,19 Republican state attorneys general kicked off a criminal investigation into the fundraising platform ActBlue over alleged cases of money laundering. 

ActBlue is a platform that the Democratic Party routinely uses for its fundraising ventures. 

It is one of the most prominent fundraising platforms for donations in the domain of election campaigns. In the 2024 presidential election cycle, ActBlue has already hauled billions of dollars. Nevertheless, there are valid issues about where those dollars were coming from. 

Back in April, several independent investigative journalist outfits such as O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) and Election Watch discovered alleged cases of illicit activity dealing with millions of dollars in campaign contributions to ActBlue that were apparently launched through small donors, unbeknownst to them.

Political analysts label the act of breaking up large contributions and making them under the name of small donors to mask illegal contributions as “smurfing.” 

ActBlue has been dogged with allegations about illegal fundraising practices since sitting President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.

The Committee on House Administration, which is chaired by Wisconsin Congressman Bryan Steil previously launched an investigation into Act Blue in November 2023 to review reports that the fundraising giant was violating campaign donation laws and letting widespread  fraud take place on the site. The committee expanded its investigation in August 2024.

In a letter he sent to leading Federal Election Commission (FEC) officials on August 5, Steil called on them to “immediately initiate an emergency rulemaking to require political campaigns to verify the card verification value (‘CVV’) 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.”

In September, Steil sent letters to five states, pushing them to carry out criminal investigations into ActBlue’s alleged illegal activities.

Heine listed off three areas of concern that Steil wanted to be looked into:

– Donations significantly disproportionate to an individual’s net worth or previous giving history.

– Uncharacteristic donations from party-affiliated registered voters suddenly contributing to candidates of the opposing party.

– Unusually frequent donations from elderly individuals or first-time donors.

 

Since then, 19 AGs from Republican-controlled states have hopped on board this investigative campaign.

The AGs sent a letter to ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones requesting information and explanations concerning suspicious donations.

Heine noted that the Republican AGs wanted a response to the following requests for information by October 23, 2024:

  1. Confirmation that ActBlue requires CVV numbers for all donations made via credit card.

  2. A description of when and under what circumstances ActBlue first decided to require donors to submit CVV numbers.

  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.

  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.

  5. An explanation of whether and how ActBlue’s operations are consistent with industry standards for securely processing credit card or other payment transactions.

  6. A description of any measures ActBlue utilizes to ensure compliance with 52 U.S.C. § 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.

  7. A description of how ActBlue’s 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.

 

Corruption has become the norm in Clown World USA. A permissive culture and the changing demographic nature of the ruling class has put the country on the path to Third World decay. 

The way to reverse this trend is for leaders at the state level to use prudential state power to fight corruption and punish individuals and entities that engage in anti-social and illegal activities. 

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