No Labels— A ScamPAC Run By Grifters, Funded By Wealthy Suckers

I read a long lawyerly letter this morning from Alan Grayson to  the Federal Election Commission, the iRS and Department of Justice and several other organization, titled “Request for Civil and Criminal Investigation of No Labels, Inc., and Related Persons and Entities.” Above Grayson’s signature he had written “I declare upon penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct” and above that, the many pages ended with something we’ve felt— and written about— for many years: “No Labels is a corrupt organization run by corrupt swindlers, as well as a clear and present danger to democracy. I ask you, please, to lock them up— lock them all up.”

Do you want the details? Grayson wants an investigation of No Labels, their PACs, their executives (Nancy Jacobson, Margaret White, and others) “for operating ‘ScamPACs’ and internal efforts that raise funds for putative campaign purposes, funds that they then convert to No Labels funds or personal funds.” He used as an example “a grifter payment of $2.1 million from ‘No Labels Action, Inc.,’ a Super PAC, to ‘No Labels,’ a putative nonprofit, with the notation ‘Donation to 501(c)(4) Organization’. In reality, this payment was the culmination of a scheme by Jacobson and White to launder money raised for campaign Super PACs that they controlled into a ‘non-profit’ from which they can benefit personally, and benefitted personally since then. (In addition to the $2.1 million grab, White, the No Labels Executive Director, also siphoned off approximately $350,000 from the same Super PACs to an entity that appears to have no existence outside of her personal mailbox, and Sasha Borowsky, the No Labels Chief of Staff, swiped $70,000 for ‘B Strategies.’)”

“This is highly relevant, right now,” he wrote, “because it appears that No Labels has been running the same scheme during this election cycle, supposedly raising money for the purpose of ‘ballot qualification’ supporting a Presidential candidate, and then belatedly admitting that there is no such candidate— no political party, no convention, no nominating process and no candidate. No Labels has so visibly become a ScamPAC that two of its donors recently sued No Labels to get their money back... In short, No Labels is operating a classic ScamPAC scheme, not materially different from Steve Bannon’s ‘We Build the Wall’ scheme (which resulted in five indictments, for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering), the Tunstall/Reyes/Davies convictions (resulting in five to ten years in prison), the Kelley Rogers ‘Strategic Campaign Group’ prosecution (three years in prison) and the like.”

Jacobson and White control a web of SuperPACs bringing in cash, “to swindle millions of dollars of campaign

funds for themselves” including:

• Forward Not Back, Inc.

• United for Progress, Inc.

• United Together, Inc.

• Citizens for a Strong America, Inc.

• Govern Or Go Home, Inc.

• Americans Committed for Progress, Inc.

• Citizens for America, Inc.

• Progress Together, Inc.

• Patriotic Americans PAC, Inc.

• No Labels Action, Inc. 

• Progress Tomorrow, Inc

… “The most extreme example of what amounts to embezzlement is the No Labels Super PAC called ‘Govern or Go Home.’ It raised $826,000, and diverted $770,128 (i.e. 93 percent) to “No Labels Action, Inc.” and thence to No Labels.

No more than seven percent of the funds contributed to ‘Govern or Go Home’ could have been spent on campaign expenditures. There is no evidence that any of the No Labels Super PACs donors authorized or intended to give non-campaign, unrestricted funding to No Labels, for whatever personal use Jacobson or White might want. If that had been their intention, then they would have given funds to No Labels directly... To be blunt, No Labels, Jacobson and White systematically looted the No Labels Super PACs so that No Labels could skim off $2.1 million in contributions to them, White could grab approximately $350,000, and Borowsky and the Penn companies could take whatever they could get. It does not appear that any of the donors, or even the No Labels Super PAC treasurers, authorized this diversion of these campaign funds.

Four of the conservative billionaires who support them were exposed by the Wall Street Journal: investor Nelson Peltz, hedge-fund manager Louis Bacon, investor Howard Marks and former hedge-fund manager John Arnold. Here are some others I dug up from an old post I did in 2018:

• Josh Bekenstein, CEO of Bain Capital, who gave $250,000 in 2015.

• John Douglas Arnold, head of Centaurus Advisors, LLC, who gave $200,000 in 2017.

• John Catsimatidis, president, chairman, and CEO of Gristedes Foods, who gave $100,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• Douglas Durst, ‎president of the Durst Organization, who gave $10,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• Carl Ferenbach, co-founder of Berkshire Partners LLC, who gave $20,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• Former Rep. James Charles “Jim” Greenwood (R-PA), who gave $15,000 in 2016.

• Kerry Healey, former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, who have $25,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• George Hume, president and chief executive of Basic American Foods, who gave $25,000 in 2017.

• Ted Kellner, a Milwaukee business executive, who gave $20,000 in 2017.

• Franklin Pitch Johnson, Silicon Valley venture-capital pioneer, who gave $25,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• Howard Marks, co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, who gave $125,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• Nelson Peltz, founding partner of Trian Fund Management, who gave $500,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• Marc J. Rowan, co-founder of the private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, who gave $150,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• Andrew Tisch, co-chair of Loews Corporation, who gave $62,500 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

• Christy Ruth Walton, a Walmart heiress, who gave $25,000 in 2017.

• Eric Zinterhofer, founding partner of Searchlight Capital Partners, who gave $50,000 in 2016 and was labeled a “reoccuring donor.”

And more I found from another 2018 post:

• Louis Bacon (Moore Capital Management)- $500,000

• Howard Marks (Oaktree Capital)- $375,000

• Christopher Stadler (CVC Stadler)- $250,000

• Jerry Reinsdorf (Chicago White Sox)- $200,000

• Michael Sonnenfeldt (Tiger 21 LLC)- $125,000

• Carl Ferenbach (High Meadows)- $125,000

• Craig Duchossois (Duchossois Group)- $100,000

• Jim Frank (Wheels)- $100,000

In that same post, I also found a quote from Marie Newman, a Chicago progressive who No Labels was able to sabotage once, but who beat them and their puppet candidate the second time. “No Labels,” she told me, “is widely known as a true PAC-bully for conservatives. To be clear, they are not centrist in any way. No Labels only supports conservatives. During my campaign they made up ridiculous lies-saturated ads and executed horrifying things on the ground to beat me. I am incredibly proud of all of my partner Non-profit PAC supporters. My campaign and supporters were honest, fair and ethical. No Labels was the opposite in every way.” They spent nearly a million dollars smearing her.