Federal Election Commission member Ann Ravel on Tuesday proposed a ban on political contributions by domestic subsidiaries of foreign corporations.
Ravel’s proposal cites The Intercept series last week reporting that American Pacific International Capital, a California corporation owned by two Chinese nationals, donated $1.3 million to Right to Rise USA, the main Super PAC supporting Jeb Bush’s presidential run.
Ravel wrote that as a result of Citizens United and subsequent Supreme Court decisions, “our campaign finance system is vulnerable to influence from foreign nationals and foreign corporations through Domestic subsidiaries and affiliates in ways unimaginable a decade ago.”
The 2010 Citizens United decision struck down the prohibition on corporations spending their own money on “independent expenditures,” thereby opening the possibility that foreign money could flow into elections that way.
Ravel, noting The Intercept’s stories, wrote that this was no longer “a hypothetical concern.”
APIC board member Wilson Chen told The Intercept that APIC made the contributions following advice from its own lawyer and a 2015 memo prepared by Charlie Spies, treasurer and general counsel of Right to Rise USA and arguably the most important Republican campaign finance lawyer.
The Spies memo explains that, while foreigners are strictly prohibited from making political contributions, the FEC “has repeatedly made clear that even if a corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of a foreign corporation … as long as the subsidiary is both organized under the laws of a U.S. state and has its principal place of business within the U.S., the subsidiary is not a foreign national.” In the case of APIC, the fact that it is incorporated in California makes it American for legal purposes.
Spies’s reasoning largely rests on what is known as “AO 2006-15” — an FEC advisory opinion from 2006. That opinion stated that two U.S. corporations that were 100 percent owned by a Canadian corporation called TransCanada could make political contributions as long as the subsidiaries did not use money generated outside the U.S. or allow foreign nationals to play any role in the decision making process.
Whether APIC, in the end, followed those guidelines is an open question. The Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog organization focused on money in politics, has filed a complaint asking the FEC to open an investigation into APIC’s donations. “Current FEC rules allowing foreign-owned U.S. subsidiaries to spend in our elections, as long as citizens control the contributions, are clearly inadequate to prevent foreign influence,” Larry Noble, the Campaign Legal Center’s general counsel, wrote in a statement accompanying the complaint. “Yet the evidence shows that even those lax rules were violated here.”
Wilson Chen told The Intercept that he “proposed to make a donation to the Republican Party and then let the board of directors approve it before sending the donation.” APIC’s board includes Chen himself and Neil Bush, both U.S. citizens, but also APIC owners Gordon Tang and Huaidan Chen, who are not.
In Ravel’s proposal, she writes that “given significant developments in law and practice” since the FEC’s advisory opinion was issued ten years ago, the FEC should “formally rescind Advisory Opinion 2006-15 (TransCanada) and the parts of other advisory opinions that purported to permit Domestic subsidiaries of foreign corporations to make contributions or donations, either directly or through separate segregated funds, in connection with federal, state, and local elections.”
Rescinding the advisory opinion would not eliminate the loophole that makes foreign owned U.S. corporations legally American. And since FEC enforcement is so notably lax these days, due to a persistent 3-3 deadlock, it’s not entirely clear how dramatic an effect it would have.
The proposal is set to be on the FEC’s agenda for its meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16.
Top photo: FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel.
HA HA ! LOL! THE REST OF THE WORLD HAS BEEN DOING THE SAME THING FOR 16 YEARS …IS IT A BAD THING ONLY WHEN BRAZIL DOES IT ?
What do you think India’s NASSCOM has been doing to the USA for 25 years. Pump millions into the pockets of polls to keep the flood of cheap foreign workers coming.
Articles like these are the reason I keep reading here even though 75% of the material is now being written by interns and ideological hacks.
Nice job, Lee. You are covering this beat well. Keep it up sir. Keep your boot on their neck.
I have to admit Trump’s making this an outrageous election cycle far more interesting than the establishment’s Tweedledum choice, please-clap-Jebby, could ever have managed. I also believe, like Jeff D below, Citizens United is still not the corruption and evil that direct campaign contributions are, particularly when “bundled” by those bribery-middlemen — lobbyists.
I once heard someone suggest the war on Islam is really about that religion being against charging interest for loans, believing it to be a sin, and making them the natural enemy of an empire of greed.
Since she’s already risking her job anyway maybe Ravel should also bring up the more direct bribery and influence peddling of lobbyist “bundled” campaign contributions, made directly to every elected official that’ll take them, at Tuesday’s FEC meeting.
The NRA is NOT overriding American’s wanting stronger gun controls – by contributing to SuperPACs.
“There are no nations, there are no peoples, there are no Russians, there are no Arabs, there are no third worlds, there is no West … there is only one holistic system of systems … [a] multinational dominion of dollars. Petro dollars, electro dollars … There is no America, there is no democracy; there is only IBM and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those ARE the nations of the world today.” Arthur Jenson from the Movie Network (1976).
The point is that the people who run things don’t give a damn if foreigners donate money to U.S. elections; hell, they don’t even care if foreigners influence them. That’s not the problem anyway; the problem is that legalized bribery, in the form of private campaign contributions, even exists at all (see the paragraph above).
BTW, this was the best part of and scene in the movie, and was far more educating than the “mad as hell” parts that everyone fell in love with. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be mad as hell and refuse to take it anymore, but that can cut any direction. This speech explained perfectly what was going on and what the problem was. And this was 40 years ago, imagine how much worse it is now.
this problem is 2016 years old.
Luke 11:46
Right, the dawn of the agricultural revolution and patriarchal beliefs.
The elimination of restrictions on corporate power has been
the central driver of policies and “trade” agreements for
both the republicans and the democrats for decades now.
If any restriction on the influence of international corporate money
is implemented, it will be a violation of NAFTA, CAFTA, and the
(soon to be implemented) TPP.
The World Trade Organization WTO is now the determiner of
what is legal in the faking U$A. They will again threaten sanctions
against any “government” which appears to block the flow
of corporate control and money.
The members of the WTO are vehemently opposed to
any nationalistic protections interfering with the accumulation of
private profits for “multi-national” elites.
The WTO tells the congress of the faking U$A how to
re-write their laws for the benefit of global corporate domination.
hillary was very busy laying the groundwork for the enforcement of the TPP GLOBAL INITIATIVE. Putting alliances and weapons and espionage centers in place for the rothschild one world currency scheme to feed upon the public like masters over slaves.
PURE EVIL.
Is that THE America, the same one that sticks its money and its nose into more “other” countries’ businesses than everyone else combined? Practice, Preach, Hypocrites.
Unfortunately, we still haven’t learned from Vietnam.
The American people have already voted on the embodiment of foreign influence and corruption of our political system and degradation of public welfare for personal enrichment.. and she’s about to become POTUS.
While I’d like to see a from behind upset involving 3rd party, I think you are right. Bill Maher had that right wing pollster on (Lundsford?), he admitted that HRC would be the next Pres as of that day. Funny, though, it seems even Bill Maher is not liking the idea of HRC as POTUS. He had Gary Johnson on and wished him in to the debates.
Luntz. loath that guy.
Under-known and under-appreciated would seem to me to be the extent to which an international organization that espouses an essentially Turkish nationalist + islamist agenda has, during the past couple of decades, not simply established itself more or less discretely throughout the US — from constructing charter schools all over the place, to owning so-called Amish stores @ NYC — but also, through generous donations that in aggregate go well into the 7-digit $ range, are in the very throes of infiltrating & ‘owning’ any number of politicians, from the Clintons on down (through DEMs + GOP) to the bottom of the heap.
See @ YouTube the speeches given separately by both Hill & Billary Clinton at the so-called Turkish Cultural Center in New York some seven years back, both of which were certainly brokered by Huma Abedin Weiner (whose father was long a vocal advocate of so-called interfaith-dialogue) acting not in favor of the Turkish nation or people, as such, but in effect on behalf of high-up members of the Turkish Hizmet [= Service] sect that pays allegiance to its very own private incarnation of L. Ron Hubbard, viz., the putative Sufi Muslim Imam Fethullah Gulen, long resident [since 1999] @ PA (who, at least nominally, also advocates such interfaith-dialogue — well, at least amidst the lower strata of the pyramidal Hizmet structure way, way down from its apex toward its ever-expanding ponzi-style base).
As indicated, the Gulenist agenda consists in a pot-pourri of [functional] Turkish nationalism (whereby the US, and many countries besides, come over time to host any number of Gulenist-sponsored Turkish emigrees, all exalted in their hearts & minds not merely by the promise of green cards and eventual citizenship but by the human compassion & wisdom of Gulen himself) in combo with the enthusiastic [< = theos-infused] embrace of a load of putatively Sufi islamic musings (however, none of them anywhere near the incomparable standard set many centuries ago by the unholy wit & wisdom of the great Mullah Nassr Eddin). But now, — problem!
The Gulenists worldwide — perhaps not altogether unlike the Free Masons, the Scientologists, the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Plymouth Brethren, the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Wacos, and who knows who else besides — would seem over time (as reward for the payment of tithes) to have retailed a variant Turkoman & Naqshbandi version of manifest destiny: viz., not quite that the meek shall inherit the Earth but, rather, that the Gulenists will do so, or at least that they shall inherit Turkey just to start with and for the time being.
Given their opportunistic collaboration with Erdogan's AKP Party prior to his violent schism with Gulen in December 2013, the Gulenists, shielded by their cultivated invisibility as individuals of an educated elite with a secret agenda only one day to become manifest, succeeded over the course of decades in infiltrating the entire governmental (= military, police, municipal, judicial, financial & corporate) infra-structure of modern Turkey. But their coup on July 15 — certainly one facilitated and lubricated if not actually originated by US and perhaps fellow EU loose cannons in NATO, on Wall Street, and in the US-media — turned out to be a complete cock-up and a total balls-up. So by now, in Turkey, the shit is really hitting the fan, and there's all hell to pay. Thus, much like wine can turn to vinegar, manifest destiny for the Gulenists has suddenly flipped arse-over-tip and become entropy.
From a Turkish viewpoint, by dint and/or by leave of a certain symbiosis by now long existing between, on the one hand, the Clintons, their Foundation & their factotum Huma Abedin, and on the other the Gulenists aka Hizmet & its so-called Turkish Cultural Center, Turkish / US<NATO relations are at rock-bottom. And this situation only promises to get worse — or mightn't things be much for the better as far as Turkey is concerned? — if HRC gets elected to be POTUS. Little wonder, then, that Turkey by now has a new iron in the fire — viz., its heralded collaboration, political, military, and economic, with the omnipotent & omniscient #Putin. With a bit of luck, NATO will get blocked from the Black Sea at the Dardanelles, and never even get close to the Bosporus. And I guess for that we shall all one day have to thank the Clintons and all the filthy lucre that, thanks to Uma, found its way to both the Clinton Foundation and HRC's campaign out of the massive purse of the US Gulenists.
“US must pick Gulen or Turkey: Erdogan [Ultimatum]”,
http://www.hurriyetnews.com (08/16/2016)
“Wow! … She’s Toast” — A 101 crash course on HRC + Gulenists courtesy Assange:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hukkrYOnRQ
Truly mind-blowing stuff on HRC & WmC hot off the griddle (08/12/2016) @ ‘Spotlight’ from former FBI employee & Boiling Frog, Sibel Edmonds (27 mins.):
See @ YouTube by entering:
“Wikileaks, Hillary-Gulen Intimate Ties
& How Clintons Gave Birth to Mullah Gulen’s Terrorist Network”
That’s a lot of big talk for so little Gulen’ist dirt? What else you got?
*Idk much about Gulen, but I doubt he’s the prophet of doom you make out (cf Assange.)… at least you didn’t put him in the Jim Jones class of pied-pipers.
“Under-known and under-appreciated would seem to me to be …”
Mullah Nassr Eddin was one day on the street accompanied by both his wives when he was asked provocatively by a member of the public, ‘If both your wives were drowning, then which one would you choose to save?’. Turning to the older of his wives he enquired, ‘Darling, do you remember how to swim?’
dailycaller.com/2016/07/13/new-ties-emerge-between-clinton-and-mysterious-islamic-cleric/
www,middleeasteye.net/columns/who-fetullah-gulen-2030195174
nationalinterest.org/feature/hillarys-ties-the-shady-islamic-cleric-accused-backing-17148
Yes, but tell us about his speaking fees.
WSJ reporter James Grimaldi talks at length re: Clinton Foundation and its ‘conflict[s] of interest[s]’ on today’s (Friday’s) http://www.democracynow.org — begin circa 12 mins. in
Let’s just suppose for the sake or argument that, as unlikely as it would seem, prima facie, the considerable monies donated over time by the Gulenists to HRC, to her POTUS campaign, and to the Clinton Foundation involved no actual quid pro quo and were generously and magnanimously proffered with no strings attached. Well then, here we have something of an exemplary tale in that a past beholden-ness incurred by a politician can nevertheless, at some future & notional time, render that person suddenly compromised when faced with and confronted by unforeseen circumstances — in this case, the extreme antipathy now existing between the current Turkish government and all the many Gulenists, not just in the US but scattered and clustered widely all over the world, which all of a sudden poses a very serious threat to Turkish / US + NATO relations. In short, then, in a so-called democracy, it is utterly reckless for a politician ever to render him/herself actually or potentially beholden to any special-interest party above & beyond of course the electorate itself. (And I trust that bahhummingbug will now recognize that the moral of the Clinton / Gulenist story — laid out here as above, or as below — is far from being entirely irrelevant or trivial inasmuch as it has some profound bearing on today’s international geopolitics.)
The relevance and/or urgency of the matter was not in question. Nor, Clinton’s propensity to quid pro quo (short speeches start around 200k, & up!) her already well-feathered nest.
I’m wondering what’s in it for Gulen. *i’m still thinking about it.
Thanks bahhummingbug. — I guess here we’re confronted with the psychology of, on the one hand, the sanctimoniousness, the vanity, and the ambition of religious (and often enough political) leader wannabes (< false messiahs); and, on the other, in symbiosis, that of their devout adepts and followers. As I understand it, the senior Gulenists stand to the rest of their congregation and to Islam as a whole much as do the Jesuits stand to Roman Catholicism — i.e., they believe themselves enlightened and privy to a certain esoteric knowledge & wisdom that elevates them spiritually, as individuals, way above the plebs (i.e., the uselessly idiotic consumer public). Thus, at the down-market exoteric level, these Sufic 'free masons' advocate interfaith dialogue, secular education, essentially neo-liberal capitalist doctrines, US-style unconditional solidarity with Israel, et cetera. Whereas, if an individual eventually graduates and is inducted into the esoteric core of Gulenism, one gets to imbibe and to incorporate truly mystical wisdom of a specifically Koranic sort that is ordinarily denied to common humanity. This kinda quasi-cosmic ponzi scheme has worked out wonderfully over time for Gulen and his innumerable followers worldwide who, as indicated above, have created any number of charter schools and countless lucrative businesses, a big chunk of whose profits go to feeding and expanding to truly obese proportions the Gulenist organism itself. — As for the recent abortive coup in Turkey, it seems to me quite possible that the old bloke in PA was not himself seated at command & control and had little awareness of what was going down in the moment, but that his adepts had taken control of the ship while he was in repose on his divan and anticipated waking him the next morning with BIG news — viz., that Turkey had awoken to a new day, a Gulenist one in which enlightenment (not blood) was suddenly flowing down and even flooding the streets.
In the interests of fairness, next time this subject comes up, I’d very much like to see the US money in foreign elections listed alongside the foreign money in elections here. Certainly, if foreign money is bad, and so much so that no reasons are considered necessary – yes it’s the law but…, then it must also be bad when we are the foreign source of money injected into others’ elections.
It make for a far more important and democratic change in the world were we to get the US money out of foreign elections than the other way round. Instead, we have, but didn’t highlight, another of the myriad ‘do as I say and not as I do’ moments in the American political arena.
wherever the US has a military base, i would suspect that US money in elections of that country are 100% bought and rigged and charge extra for Assassinations.
organised crime has to compete with USG organised crime.
Well, the US Supreme Court approved Citizens United. Rush Limbaugh was all for it (money is speech).
I would hope a wannabe journalist would nail these assholes!
so was the ACLU, so was Glenn Greenwald, so were most 1A supporters that value free expression over government censorship.
The US shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Foreign countries channel billions of dollars into the US via the Clinton Foundation. Why cut off this bonanza?
Let’s say I’m a foreign government with $10M sitting in the bank. What is my best investment in the future? Why, to donate it to the Clinton Foundation and ensure that Mrs. Clinton, once she becomes President, does not target my country with a nuclear weapon. If I give $100M, she may even let me pick which country will be the next target.
If America’s natural destiny is to rule the world, one consequence is that tribute will flow forth from vassal nations. Initially, this may feel strange; Americans’ natural impulse is to reject it. But America should not shirk its ultimate destiny.
So welcome foreigners willing to give up their money. Many people in the comments have declared they can discern no difference between the two major parties. If so, then why would it matter if foreign money tips the balance one way or the other? Someone has to pay for the interminable American election process.
Hilarious! And sad. But… Hilarious!
Any news of your buddy Coram Nobis of late? Things these days being what they are, I fear he (& Louise Cypher?) might have been done in by the #VictoryForHillary campaign.
I was wondering about Coram and the Minkoffs myself.
Think Seth Rich — might they have been one & the same bloke?
I am exhausted and disinterested by the election extravaganza.
America will froth over anything resembling trash TV. So it isnt surprising most of the US is beholden and some of us wish we could change the channel to something less horrific and overwrought. Idiocracy would probably be a step up.
The satirical Truth.
I’m here at TI to read your comments and add superficial ones. The journalism/editorial is good though.
I’m pleasantly surprised w/ some commenters; Victoria Boulevard predicted several days ago (last week maybe?) that Assange will prove that Amb. Stevens was an arms dealer and HRC was involved in sending arms to ISIS and other anti-Assad islamic fighters (people the U.S. gov and State dept specifically have said are terrorists) … Sure enough, last night on O’reilly, Eric has Rand Paul on asking about this very thing.
TI is a nice resource for advanced news.
Yesss! kudos to real journalism work…
not like the corporate media non-male canines!
Picture this: two huge boulders blocking the pathway to numerous other trails leading towards opportunity, community, health, happiness and prosperity for the American masses.
Boulder number one represents the corruption of campaign financing.
Boulder number two represents the tyrannical reign of corporate personhood.
And since Citizens United there are far more foreigners paying hoodlums to make sure those boulders aren’t touched.
There is a third bolder: public apathy and ignorance. We focus on the presidency as though one person could make everything right, meanwhile electing incompetents, even criminals at the state and congressional levels. As for example, we have allowed ALEC to write laws at the state level. Why is nobody campaigning on that? And why have progressives not targeted the worst in Congress? The third bolder.
Yes and the injustice created by corrupt campaign financing and corporate personhood enables the purchase of our media and educational system, and that enables our citizenry to be lied to, distracted, or be set up for the next big lie, which makes it so hard to both overcome apathy or enlighten.
Some ideas for a better democracy:
1) Pay people to vote, say $50 each. This would really increase voter turnout. The other option is to make it a legal requirement to vote, or have to pay a large tax penalty.
2) Public finance for elections at the city, county, state, and national level. Of course you then have to choose who gets the money, but this could be done on the basis of gathered signatures; that also requires money. . . but perhaps less. Politicians would have to work harder, in any case, than if they could just rely on a few fat cat donors.
3) Go back to strictly hand-counted paper ballots. This would eliminate the possibility of election fraud via electronic manipulation of voting machines (which seems very common in the U.S. these days).
1. the pay-to-vote idea can work as a credit on income tax using a serielised receipt.
2. public finance is the only way.
3. the manual stuff wont work. dont ask. i guarantee it wont work.
Meanwhile, as premier American media corporation staff at The Intercept — the bestest in the world — basks in the glory of being cited for following up on its hunch American pols can be bought by anyone from anywhere (who knew!?), it carries on the sacred and well numerated duty of protecting the identities of the American Torture Community’s patriotic data suppliers, the NSA.
Keep up the fine work, American journalists!
Of course, if you are, say, an American tech giant corporation, that declares all its profits are made overseas (in a tax haven), or refuses to ‘repatriate’ (unless the IRS declares a temporary suspension of the tax code in your favour) the profits from its foreign subsidiaries, even if the IRS reverses the decision and closes the loophole, foreign money is going to be the lifeblood of the DemocRepublican party, and what gets the President after ClinTrump elected, with Americans being effectively denied a chance to vote for an American not selected by/obligated to that foreign money.
take the money out of politics?.? Good Idea B-U-T the republicans fronted 16 candidates this election. WHERE do you think the money came from??
Governor Chris Christie – settled a billion dollar law suit for 3 cents on the dollar touting it was a good deal…. He leased out our cash cow of a state lottery for twenty-years..as greed would have it they changed the odds and the playership fell off no long generating the regular revenue.. To make up for the loss he reduced the fees to be paid by the lessor. NO MONEY to pay the pension payment he agreed on?? NO MONEY for the Transportation Trust Fund?? B-U-T another 800 million dollars for Xanadu ( the american dream) eyesore in the Meadowlands…..The Bush’s Neil & Jeb got caught under the “Citizens United” rules breaking/ignoring them
HOW MANY TAX CUTS WERE GIVEN TO COVER DONATIONS TO CAMPAIGN COFFERS… THE CLOWN CAR IS NOW EMPTY – BOZO’s GONE HOME?.?.?
When America bans political contributions from organizations loyal to foreign governments, like AIPAC & the ADL, then US politics be back on track to being reclaimed by American citizens.
Exactly. Well stated.
It will never happen. I’ve given up on hope ever since 911. End of story.
I agree.
corruption in the US
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/01/chris-christie-nj-lottery/22694517/
tip of the iceberg
Congrats, that was a really great series of articles!
Team USA! chortles SocPup Nate.
I think she will be looking for new employment soon.
It’s all Kabuki at the FEC. The group has not done anything in years; this is just a show. Note that Ms. Ravel is a democrat, and the Intercept article was about a republican donation, and to a defunct candidate at that. So the Commission can dutifully hold its session, listen to the presentation and declare no harm, no foul and let things go on as they are. Certainly nobody on the RNC or DNC wants this valuable path to fundraising closed off.
Oh okay mssr. kabuki. The brilliant conspiratorial hive mind here in the intercept comments section is “hard” at work again.
So this is just a show. For who? Why bother? What is in it? Are you impressed? You are not. So what would the show exactly be for?
What I learn from reading the bitter bobs & betties of the pathetic ineffectual wing of the left (o lord don’t let it be most of them!) is mainly the same lesson I learned a long time ago:
no good deed goes unpunished
Except in this case it would be “no good deed goes unsneered at by people who literally contribute nothing, other than those sneers.”
Oh and you were too lazy to read that the Intercept article(S) implicated both Dems and Repubs…..
Lazy indeed; that was the entire point. The FEC is comprised of equal numbers from both wings of the party, thereby absolutely guaranteeing gridlock. You can be damned sure that the repubs will view this as a swipe against one of their establishment’s favorite sons, and will not allow his campaign to be tarnished. After all, he may run again in ’20. And the quote should be “No good deed goes unpunished.” Reread your copy of Strunk and White!
PS: This article was largely about self-congratulation, and thereby violated von Schliefen’s dictum.
no good deed goes unpunished. yeah. what I said, what you said.
a favorite. they should stamp that on coins.
“no good deed goes unpunished. yeah.”
yeah, it’s a “good deed” stemming million dollar foreign bribes while Israel-First! billionaires own American politics. A billion is a thousand million. (That means when you stop a million while allowing a billion, you are making a 0.1% impact. cough …)
Foreign bribes compete with Israeli-First! bribes. So guess which one gets slammed?
Yeah, but it’s a start …
” Certainly nobody on the RNC or DNC wants this valuable path to fundraising closed off.”
Certainly AIPAC does not like the competition driving the price up …
too good to be true? a trap? what’s the catch?
How about it plays right into allowing foreign subsidiaries of US corporats to suck the money out of some country and buy US elections from the caymans.
I heard that Donald Trump hasnt given any money into msm advertising. Whereas miss money in politics, the whore of wallstreet, is basking in it.
At first, I misread that as “…basilisking in it”
never the less, basil is king.
I am a big fan of culantro, myself. :)