by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
July 25, 2023
(Updated with a response from SOS America).
A campaign finance watchdog group has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that unknown persons used an “obscure entity” to funnel half-a-million dollars to a super PAC supporting the presidential campaign of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
The Campaign Legal Center – which has already filed two complaints regarding Ron DeSantis’ political campaign – is alleging that unknown persons used a company called PassionForest in October 2022 to send a $500,000 contribution to SOS America PAC, a super PAC working to help get Suarez elected president.
PassionForest, LLC was described in the complaint as “an obscure, eleven-month-old company whose only known activity involved selling artificial flowers online.” The GOP Miami mayor is not named in the complaint.
In their complaint, the Campaign Legal Center alleges that PassionForest was not the true source of the $500,000 contribution, but was instead used as a “straw donor” by unknown people to send that half-a-million dollars to SOS America “while concealing their identities as the true contributors.”
This straw donor contribution scheme violated federal campaign finance laws that uphold electoral transparency “requiring every contribution be made in the true contributor’s name, and the scheme may also have been used to conceal illegal contributions from foreign nationals, who are categorically prohibited from making political contributions,” the complaint says.
The complaint says that PassionForest’s artificial flower business had essentially closed within eleven months and thus they wouldn’t be able to make such a large contribution. And they allege that records suggest that the true donor “may be a foreign national.”
Suarez, who has served as the mayor of Miami since 2017, announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president last month, and has had a rough time breaking through to voters in the states that will vote first when the caucuses and primaries begin in mid-January . A Fox Business poll released earlier this month shows Suarez tied for 9th place at 1%. A University of New Hampshire poll released last week had Suarez at 0%.
Later on Tuesday, a spokesperson for SOS America PAC provided a statement to the Phoenix.
“No surprise liberal special interests and their allies in the media are lobbing political attacks that are intended to undercut the only Hispanic Republican candidate,” said Chapin Fay, a spokesman for SOS America PAC. “His candidacy worries them because of his strong record as a successful conservative who attracts broad support. It is our understanding that the complaint makes no accusations whatsoever against SOS America PAC or the Mayor. This is nothing more than a political attack and it will be seen for what it is.”
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