[csusbpeace] Russians Used a US Firm to Funnel Funds to GOP in 2018. Dems Say the FEC Let Them Get Away With It.
- From: "raccoon" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ("bigraccoon1")
- To: "CSUSBPEACE@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <CSUSBPEACE@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2022 20:29:03 -0700
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/10/russians-used-a-us-firm-to-funnel-funds-to-gop-in-2018-dems-say-the-fec-let-them-get-away-with-it/
Russians Used a US Firm to Funnel Funds to GOP in 2018. Dems Say the FEC Let
Them Get Away With It.
“Republicans disregarded decades of Commission precedent.”
The FEC found that a US gas company used funds from Russian oligarchs
including Roman Abramovich, seen here in 2021, to donate to GOP candidates in
2018.Martin MeissnerAP
The Federal Election Commission recently let a US company that was quietly
bankrolled by Russian oligarchs off with a slap on the wrist despite
discovering that it had illegally funneled Russian funds to US political
candidates in the 2018 midterm elections, two Democratic FEC commissioners
said in a scathing statement issued Friday.
“Half the Commission chose to reject the recommendation of the agency’s
nonpartisan Office of General Counsel and turned a blind eye to the
documented use of Russian money for contributions to various federal and
state committees in the 2018 elections,” wrote
<https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7491/7491_32.pdf> the two
commissioners, Ellen Weintraub and Shana Broussard.
Anyone who follows campaign finance knows that the FEC has been toothless for
years due to GOP commissioners’ opposition to any enforcement of laws
designed to oversee money in politics. But Weintraub and Broussard suggest
the agency hit a new low by letting the US firm, American Ethane, off with a
deal <https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7491/7491_31.pdf> in which it
agreed to pay only a small civil fine.
Though based in Houston, Texas, and run by American CEO John Houghtaling, 88
percent of American Ethane was owned by three Russian nationals—Konstantin
Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev. The FEC report said that
Nikolaev, an oligarch and Russian billionaire with close ties to Russian
President Vladimir Putin, is the controlling shareholder. Separately,
Nikolaev also underwrote
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/russian-billionaire-with-us-investments-backed-alleged-agent-maria-butina-according-to-a-person-familiar-with-her-senate-testimony/2018/07/22/dcaa7f48-8c58-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html>
efforts by Maria Butina, a Russian gun rights activist, to cultivate ties
with the National Rifle Association officials and with associates of Donald
Trump around the time of the 2016 election. In 2018, Butina acknowledged
acting as an unregistered Kremlin agent and pleaded guilty
<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/12/maria-butina-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-russia/>
to participating in a conspiracy against the United States. She was
sentenced
<https://www.npr.org/2019/04/26/716799929/russian-agent-maria-butina-to-be-sentenced-in-federal-court-on-friday>
to 18 months in prison but was deported six months later.
According to lobbying disclosures, the company was seeking help from US
officials in its efforts to sell US ethane to China and, in 2018, had hired
<https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/30a8c609-b4c8-4725-beab-46926efdf975/print/>
a US lobbying firm, Turnberry Solutions, with close ties to former Trump
campaign chief Corey Lewandowski. A year later, Lewandowki officially joined
<https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/13/ryan-zinke-lobbying-firm-1168926>
Turnberry, after previously disputing his connections to the firm. Turnberry,
which traded on ties to Trump, shut down
<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/04/lewandowski-linked-lobby-shop-is-the-latest-trump-aligned-firm-to-fall/>
in 2021, months after he left office.
The FEC investigation began after it received a complaint
<https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7491/7491_01.pdf> citing press
<https://www.desmog.com/2018/07/30/american-ethane-nikolaev-trump-russian-spy-maria-butina/>
reports
<https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/investigations/us-gas-exporters-lobbyists-failed-to-disclose-russian-interests/289-579381269>
on American Ethane’s ties to Nikolaev and its donations to lawmakers.
Weintraub and Broussard noted that the FEC found that American Ethane “made
contributions using funds derived from loans from foreign entities ultimately
owned by Russian nationals.” Federal law bans foreign funds in US elections,
as well as direct corporate donations to candidates. American Ethane seems to
have done both. The FEC found that the company made more than $66,000 in
donations using money it got from offshore firms in the form of loans.
According to an FEC general counsel’s report
<https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7491/7491_20.pdf> released last year,
the owners of the offshore firms included Alexander Voloshin, a Russian
politician and former state power company official, and Roman Abramovich, an
infamous Russian oligarch and former owner of the British football powerhouse
Chelsea. The money the company used to dole out donations ultimately came
from the oligarchs, the FEC said.
During its four-year investigation, the FEC found that the funds initially
put up by Abromovich and other Russian nationals were then funneled to
Republicans in Louisiana: Sens. John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, a political
action committee run by Kennedy, a leadership fund run by House Majority Whip
Steve Scalise, a PAC backing Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, and the
campaigns of Reps. Mike Johnson and Garrett Graves. Other contributions went
to state lawmakers. The report didn’t explain why the company focused on
Louisiana but the state is home to many natural gas firms, and its lawmakers
advocate for the industry.
The lawmakers who received funds have not been accused of knowingly taking
Russian money, though the final report from the initial investigation noted,
“American Ethane attempted to make more political contributions, but those
recipient committees never deposited American Ethane’s checks.”
American Ethane argued that the funds the company first received appeared as
loan to the American corporation. Therefore, they claimed the donations it
made were not foreign. The FEC rejected that argument. But it still
recommended the firm only pay $9,500 as a civil penalty.
“The foreign-influence problem has not gone away in the meantime, to put it
mildly,” Weintraub and Broussard wrote. “In this case, it is beyond
unfortunate that for three of our colleagues, it was a bridge too far to
penalize the use of Russian oligarchs’ money to influence U.S. elections.”
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