Well, lookie here: "Feds investigating alleged illegal donations to Collins’ re-election bid," says Axios. The "feds" in question are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the “Collins” is none other than Susan Collins. And the FBI investigation is into "what it describes as a massive scheme to illegally finance Sen. Susan Collins' 2020 re-election bid."
How very concerning.
The story behind those allegedly illegal donations is not new news, but the FBI investigating it part of the story is. Clear back in February 2020 when Collins' reelection campaign was in full gear, the Daily Beast had a report about a mysterious company based in Hawaii calling itself the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers LLC making a six-figure donation to her campaign—or, rather, to the 1820 PAC, a super PAC set up solely for Collins by a few very well-heeled folks.
That company turned out to be a shell created by Hawaii-based defense contractor Navatek LLC, as Honolulu Civil Beat discovered. That company—with help from Collins from her perch as head of the subcommittee that secured the money—had received an $8 million contract from the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research in August 2019. Within two weeks, Collins had amassed a bunch of donations from people associated with Navatek. Then in December 2019, the 1820 PAC (again, set up to support Collins) got that $150,000 from SYSWE, the shell company of Navatek. Government contractors are barred from making political donations. Hence the illegality.
Navatek and its founder Martin Koa came under scrutiny in 2020 when Koa was indicted for bank fraud and money laundering, and accused of lying on two applications to secure Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) small business funding. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan.) He is accused of overstating his company's need for the relief, lying about the number of his employees so he could qualify, and using a second company to apply for two loans.
He is also suspected of transferring $2 million of taxpayer funded PPP loans to his personal bank account. Oh, and yes, Susan Collins was the co-author of the PPP. And Kao told the bank handling his application that he had connections with "multiple unnamed U.S. senators" to get the loans. He also allegedly told the bank "some senators or their staff had advised him on the application process."
But back to those campaign donations under investigation, of which the campaign "had absolutely no knowledge of anything alleged in the warrant," Collins spokesperson Annie Clark told Axios. Uh huh. One of the pieces of evidence cited in the newly released unsealed search warrant application in the case is an email exchange between Kao, who had just maxed out to Collins' campaign, and the senator's Maine finance director:
The warrant says that bank records show that Kao reimbursed family members who maxed out to Collins' campaign—"You have already maxed (which we so appreciate), but if you have friends or family members that would be willing to donate please don't hesitate to send them my way," said the campaign finance director, hint, hint—which is illegal. The records also show that Navatek, the defense contractor that is barred from making campaign donations, reimbursed some of Kao's co-workers for their contributions.
But the Collins' campaign knew absolutely nothing about any of that. And the flurry of maxed out donations that came within days of the $8 million contract aware didn't raise any flags at all. And of course the campaign itself had absolutely no knowledge at all about that shell company Kao created and how it was pumping money into the PAC set up by Collins' friends and big donors. Because of course the campaign wouldn't be coordinating at all with the super PAC, because that would be illegal.
Uh huh. That's what Annie Clark, Collins' taxpayer-paid spokesperson—who also happened to be her campaign spokesperson (as seen here)—would undoubtedly say.
How very concerning.
The story behind those allegedly illegal donations is not new news, but the FBI investigating it part of the story is. Clear back in February 2020 when Collins' reelection campaign was in full gear, the Daily Beast had a report about a mysterious company based in Hawaii calling itself the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers LLC making a six-figure donation to her campaign—or, rather, to the 1820 PAC, a super PAC set up solely for Collins by a few very well-heeled folks.
That company turned out to be a shell created by Hawaii-based defense contractor Navatek LLC, as Honolulu Civil Beat discovered. That company—with help from Collins from her perch as head of the subcommittee that secured the money—had received an $8 million contract from the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research in August 2019. Within two weeks, Collins had amassed a bunch of donations from people associated with Navatek. Then in December 2019, the 1820 PAC (again, set up to support Collins) got that $150,000 from SYSWE, the shell company of Navatek. Government contractors are barred from making political donations. Hence the illegality.
Navatek and its founder Martin Koa came under scrutiny in 2020 when Koa was indicted for bank fraud and money laundering, and accused of lying on two applications to secure Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) small business funding. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan.) He is accused of overstating his company's need for the relief, lying about the number of his employees so he could qualify, and using a second company to apply for two loans.
He is also suspected of transferring $2 million of taxpayer funded PPP loans to his personal bank account. Oh, and yes, Susan Collins was the co-author of the PPP. And Kao told the bank handling his application that he had connections with "multiple unnamed U.S. senators" to get the loans. He also allegedly told the bank "some senators or their staff had advised him on the application process."
But back to those campaign donations under investigation, of which the campaign "had absolutely no knowledge of anything alleged in the warrant," Collins spokesperson Annie Clark told Axios. Uh huh. One of the pieces of evidence cited in the newly released unsealed search warrant application in the case is an email exchange between Kao, who had just maxed out to Collins' campaign, and the senator's Maine finance director:
The warrant says that bank records show that Kao reimbursed family members who maxed out to Collins' campaign—"You have already maxed (which we so appreciate), but if you have friends or family members that would be willing to donate please don't hesitate to send them my way," said the campaign finance director, hint, hint—which is illegal. The records also show that Navatek, the defense contractor that is barred from making campaign donations, reimbursed some of Kao's co-workers for their contributions.
But the Collins' campaign knew absolutely nothing about any of that. And the flurry of maxed out donations that came within days of the $8 million contract aware didn't raise any flags at all. And of course the campaign itself had absolutely no knowledge at all about that shell company Kao created and how it was pumping money into the PAC set up by Collins' friends and big donors. Because of course the campaign wouldn't be coordinating at all with the super PAC, because that would be illegal.
Uh huh. That's what Annie Clark, Collins' taxpayer-paid spokesperson—who also happened to be her campaign spokesperson (as seen here)—would undoubtedly say.