An investigation by the Free Beacon into the financial disclosures at Joe Biden’s favorite super PAC has resulted in calls for an investigation.
The publication reported finding a $12 million gap in the reports at Future Forward, which it said has been endorsed by Biden as the “pre-eminent super PAC” working to re-elect the challenged octogenarian.
The report said the PAC claimed it had gotten only $3.4 million in cash from its affiliated dark money group.
“But that group, nonprofit Future Forward USA Action, reported in its 2021 IRS tax return that it provided $15.3 million to the super PAC that year,” the report said.
And that was just one of several errors that experts are warning should be enough for a federal investigation.
“The apparent numerous and blatant discrepancies in the recent filings by both the nonprofit and the super PAC are beyond troubling,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of watchdog group Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, told the Free Beacon.
“This situation calls for an investigation.”
Arnold explained that the major differences in the financial disclosures suggests a “deeper problem,” and the Free Beacon noted nonprofit lawyer attorney Jason Torchinsky explained a failure to report millions in contributions would be something for the Federal Election Commission to review.
Such an investigation involving Future Forward could complicate a Biden bid for re-election, as the report explained Future Forward, run by ex-Barack Obama officials, has raised some $400 million in five years to promote Democrats.
“Much of Future Forward’s funds came from Future Forward USA Action, which as a nonprofit is not required to publicly disclose its donors,” the report said.
Biden has condemned such “dark money” because he said it “erodes public trust” but nonetheless will be counting on that funding to “play a key role” to support him.
The report said there were other problems, too, in addition to the difference between the $15.3 million Future Forward USA Action reported giving and what Future Forward reported getting.
“It seems very odd to tell the IRS that you sent $15 million to a super PAC, but to only have that super PAC report $3 million,” Jason Torchinsky, a lawyer for nonprofits, told the Free Beacon. “If the FEC determined that there were $12 million in underreported receipts by a super PAC, that could result in a substantial fine because FEC penalties are often assessed based on the amount at issue.”
Further, the dark money group said millions of those donations were “effectively earmarked” for the Biden-supporting organization, “meaning the group should have revealed the original donors to the FEC.”
Republican election lawyer Charlie Spies said, in the report, it wasn’t acceptable to hide donors by “routing the money through the nonprofit.”
“The U.S. DOJ has sent people to prison for this sort of illegal activity, and the FEC has imposed major fines on conservative organizations accused of less blatant earmarking,” he said.
The investigation revealed other discrepancies including the super PAC appearance of “no dedicated staff, as it has never reported making a payroll expenditure,” instead using services from its dark money branch.
While those arrangements are legal, “Future Forward reported to the FEC it received $467,204 worth of in-kind staff contributions from the dark money group in 2020. But the dark money group claimed to the IRS it only provided $67,479 worth of in-kind staff time to the super PAC that same year. The numbers should be an exact match, but instead, they’re off by a factor of nearly seven,” the report said.
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.