Campaign Legal Center Alleges “Head East LLC” Was a Straw Donor to Pro-Burgum Super PAC

Date
Case
Preventing Wealthy Special Interests from Using Shell Companies to Keep Their Political Spending Secret
Issues
Campaign Finance

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against “Head East LLC” and any unknown person(s) that made a $150,000 contribution to the super PAC Best of America, which was supporting the 2024 presidential candidacy of Doug Burgum, North Dakota’s governor.  

The complaint alleges that Head East, registered in the state of North Dakota on July 24, 2023, was used to conceal the true sources of a $150,000 contribution made to the super PAC just 15 days later on August 8, 2023. Under the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), “straw donor” contributions of this nature are clearly prohibited and only serve to conceal the true source of money used to influence elections.

“Straw donor schemes like the one behind Head East LLC are harmful because they deprive voters of their right to know who is spending to try and influence their votes and our government. To reduce political corruption, we need real transparency about who is spending this money so that politicians can no longer receive unlimited, secret money from wealthy special interests to support their campaigns,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at Campaign Legal Center. “With super PACs primed to spend millions of dollars on this year’s presidential election, it is critical that the public has more transparency on who is behind this kind of secretive, and illegal, spending.”  

“Head East LLC” appears to have been made for the sole purpose of providing an anonymous donation to the Best of America super PAC. The LLC has no publicly available information on public databases or resources, and there is no evidence that it conducted any other activity besides making this six-figure contribution since its inception.  

Even though we expect to see a record amount of election spending from super PACs and other outside groups throughout the 2024 election cycle, federal campaign finance laws require all donors to be transparent about who they are. Those who have violated these laws in recent years have faced both civil fines and criminal indictments after their straw donor schemes came to light. The FEC needs to fully investigate this matter and enforce the law.