by Andrew Kerr at The Washington Free Beacon
Within days of its founding in early August, a mysterious company called Save Our Home Planet Action, Inc. managed to get ahold of nearly $2.2 million—funds that it promptly handed over to a collection of major Democratic super PACs.
Corporations can legally contribute to super PACs if the donated funds are earned through regular business activities. But it’s unclear what Save Our Home Planet Action did to earn the nearly $2.2 million it passed onto the Democratic groups after its founding in August through October. The company has neither an online presence nor a file with the Better Business Bureau or any other corporate databases.
Federal Election Commission records show the mysterious company shares an address with Patagonia, the self-proclaimed “activist company” that has committed to donating $100 million every year to combat climate change and uses the “Save Our Home Planet” slogan in the clothing it sells. And California business records show Greg Curtis, a former Patagonia legal officer who now heads the retailer’s parent nonprofit, signed documents on behalf of Save Our Home Planet Action.
To Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group, Save Our Home Planet Action likely isn’t a real company in the traditional sense but a shell corporation launched by Patagonia or its executives to facilitate an illegal “straw donor” scheme that concealed the true source of the funds it doled out to Democratic super PACs, which included $450,000 each to the Senate and House Democratic campaign funds, $1.2 million to the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund, and $50,000 to Future Forward, the primary super PAC that backed Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign.
Campaign Legal Center filed a…
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