A government watchdog group called the Americans for Public Trust has just filed a finance comparing against the outdoor clothing company Patagonia, alleging that they misrepresented donations.
The complaint claims that Patagonia “misidentified political contributions made to Democrat political action committees in 2022.”
“With these tremendous resources, and the subsequent desire to pour this money into American politics, there should come great responsibility and transparency,” the complaint said, highlighting Patagonia’s vast assets. “The very bedrock of these responsibilities should include providing accurate contributor information so that most basic disclosure and transparency requirements of [FECA] can be met.”
From Fox News Business:
According to the complaint filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), a collective of climate-focused tax-exempt groups — which altogether hold 98% of Patagonia’s nonvoting shares worth nearly $1.8 billion — misidentified political contributions made to Democrat political action committees in 2022.
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Federal elections filings analyzed by APT and reviewed by Fox News Digital show that in late 2022 the so-called Holdfast Collective donated $100,000 to the Senate Majority PAC, which is devoted to electing Democrats to the Senate; $50,000 to the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, which gives solely to left-wing campaigns; and $25,000 to the Galeo Impact Fund PAC, which donated only to Democrat Georgia Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
The findings claim that two nonprofits did the contributions but did not identify the contributor correctly on the forms that were submitted to the FEC and is “a possible violation of FECA.”
“It is unacceptable that a for-profit company posed as a donor to mask a network of nonprofit organizations working to quietly influence our political system,” APT Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News. “By misreporting the source of the donations, Holdfast is trying to hide its true organizational structure that operates as a $1.7 billion ATM for liberal groups.”
If you like to learn more about the complaint you can click here to read it in context.
