Pro-Romney Super PAC Mystery Donor Comes Forward

WASHINGTON -- Former Bain Capital managing director Ed Conard came forward Friday night and admitted that he is the creator of W Spann LLC, the company that contributed $1 million to the pro-Mitt Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future.

Conard issued a statement to Politico admitting that he was the source of the contribution and asking that Restore Our Future amend its report to list his name, as opposed to W Spann, on records filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC):

I am the individual who formed and funded W Spann LLC. I authorized W Spann LLC's contribution to Restore Our Future PAC. I did so after consulting prominent legal counsel regarding the transaction, and based on my understanding that the contribution would comply with applicable laws. To address questions raised by the media concerning the contribution, I will request that Restore Our Future PAC amend its public reports to disclose me as the donor associated with this contribution.

The admission came immediately after two prominent reform groups filed a complaint with both the FEC and the U.S. Department of Justice calling for an investigation into the contribution. The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 alleged that the person behind the W Spann contribution had broken the law by creating a corporation to make a contribution in the name of another person. Conduit contributions are illegal.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) also piled onto the controversy by blasting Romney, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president. The DNC called the contribution "sleazy" and asked supporters to respond by matching the $1 million given to Restore Our Future with small-dollar donations of $3 per person to the DNC.

The controversy began when NBC discovered that the Delaware-based W Spann dissolved just three months after making the $1 million contribution to Restore Our Future. The company had listed a Madison Avenue skyscraper that housed offices for Bain Capital, the investment firm created by Romney, as its address for the contribution, raising speculation that a Bain executive was behind the donation. Conard worked out of the Madison Avenue office until 2007, when he left Bain Capital.

Bain Capital had previously issued a carefully worded statement saying none of its employees were connected to W Spann or its $1 million contribution.

The immediate reason for Conard's use of W Spann for the contribution is unclear. Conard is not a well-known donor and is not known to have previously bundled contributions for candidates in the past.

Since 1993, Conard has given $254,750 to federal and state Republican candidates and party organizations. In 2008 he supported Romney's presidential bid, and when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) instead received the nomination, he gave $25,000 to the McCain-Palin Victory 2008 committee. The top recipients of Conard's contributions over the years have been the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which received $88,900, and Romney's campaign and political committee, Commonwealth PAC and Free & Strong America PAC, which received $33,800.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 claimed credit for unveiling Conrad as the mystery donor, declaring that the FEC and Department of Justice should go forward with their investigations and that no contributor should remain anonymous.

"The Campaign Legal Center is prepared to vigorously seek legal redress against any similar schemes to hide the true sources of funding of political organizations active in the 2012 election," Campaign Legal Center attorney Paul S. Ryan stated. "The American people should not have to put up with such schemes to evade disclosure of money in our elections. Both donors and recipient committees, and the candidates they support, should be aware we will be seeking enforcement of the law in every case."

Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer also released a statement:

This case of the secret $1 million donor shows the extraordinary lengths that people are prepared to go to in order to hide their campaign contributions from the American people. More importantly this case illustrates the secret campaign money culture we now live in as the result of gaping loopholes in our federal campaign finance disclosure laws. These loopholes were caused by the Citizens United decision and improper FEC regulations that have eviscerated existing contribution disclosure provisions.

Comments

[edwcorey]

01:55 PM on 08/11/2011

Restore Our Future PAC is a conservative organization, and conservatives are all about the past--a mythical past. Most people consider the nation's economic halcyon times the 1950s. That was when the highest tax rates were 90%, financial regulations were strongest, and corporate CEOs' salaries were low multiples, not exponentials, of the average worker's.

[Michael Kenney]

12:33 AM on 08/11/2011

Write legislation making all contributions illegal. Make candidates dependent on tax dollars for campaigns. Provide equal access and let the candidates compete with ideas and programs, not catchphrases and vitriol. No one is willing to go first in giving up contributions so it has to come from congressmen who are not going to run again. Craft the legislation so that it offers equal access to "speech"- e.g.,undo the stunningly anti-democracy Citizens United decision, which in fact does just the opposite of protecting free speech by making true influence something only the wealthy can afford. And makes politicians even more dependent on wealthy contributors, so that they have no motivation to represent the rest of us.

[Lockland]

04:23 PM on 08/10/2011

Let's just admit it ... Big Business OWNS the Republican Party.

Vote for a Republican .. and you are voting to assure that will Big Business will be in total control of this country.

Republican's wouldn't want to get all those nasty, annoying 'pests' - called American citizens and their rights and their well being ... let alone the pursuit of happiness ... get in the way of making a profit.

[romano70]

07:34 AM on 08/09/2011

Elofudpucker, what is your point again?

[StrictConstitutionalist1]

08:56 PM on 08/08/2011

Mitt Romney's a flip flopper and shouldn't even be considered for the Republican ticket. I would also like to know who the "mystery investor" was that magically timed the bond market just right on Thursday and made off with a 1000% return totaling $10 billion after the U.S. credit rating was downgraded. It has to be someone with ties to the Federal Reserve and the White House. It has to be someone who can pony up $1 billion cash and it has to be someone that's been betting against the United States for quite some time now. That leads me to George Soros.

[Mary Karius]

04:26 PM on 08/08/2011

let the bidding war begin

[dax49]

04:21 PM on 08/08/2011

Why hasn't romney been questioned about, while he is busy making "pronouncements"-let him make one on this subject!

[TBinSD]

03:52 PM on 08/08/2011

Nothing like asking some old friends for cool mil to help get things started. Too bad it's not money well spent.

[Baileygk]

03:47 PM on 08/08/2011

isn't it illegal to give money to a PAC in the name of someone else? Amend the report all you want, you still broke the law.

[truthocentric]

03:33 PM on 08/08/2011

Thank You Justice Scalia. Your poor judgement is about to open the floodgates for sneaky losers like this. The worst is yet to come. WAKE UP AMERICA!

[playsindirt]

02:52 PM on 08/08/2011

He's going to be toast when conservatives figure out he's a RINO (republican in name only). The guy has a history of voting pro-choice and pro-gay issues. He's almost human!

[BilloBrillo]

02:10 PM on 08/08/2011

If a bank robber handed a bag of cash to Romney as he ran from the scene of the crime, would Romney hand it back?

[O Dannyboy]

06:29 PM on 08/08/2011

He'd take the cash, of course, but he would definitely leave the other guy holding the bag.

[IWantTofu]

02:00 PM on 08/08/2011

If corporations were considered people, then you can't have the corporation donate in your name. It's like having your secretary give your money for a candidate. It shoudl be considered illegal.

[Grunty1]

03:12 PM on 08/08/2011

It is illegal. When you donate, you have to attest that the money was not given to you expressly for a donation.

[IWantTofu]

04:46 PM on 08/08/2011

So what you are saying is that if the law was broken in this case, you can't modify the report to the SEC to change the illegal donation into a legal donation.

[IWantTofu]

01:55 PM on 08/08/2011

How did that guy list Bain's address for his LLC if he is no long working there?

[AbeMartin]

11:42 AM on 08/08/2011

I don't know which atmospheric pollution I should fear more: Execizing outside and risking exposure to elevated ozone levels caused by high temperatures, stagnant air and lack of rain? Or getting hit in the face by the fecal stench that is building over the Beltway and expanding westward across the country as the billionaires and plutocrats consipire to control what remains of the traditional political process with their "contributions" to super-pacs and "legal" advocacy groups such as the group that brought us the Swiftboat attacks against John Kerry in 2004.