This week I filed a sworn supplemental complaint against the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). The 37 page document accuses (NOM) of not reporting $345,400 in contributions that it received from 11 donors in 2008 including GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. NOM was the single largest contributor to California's Proposition 8 campaign that year.
I previously filed a complaint against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) with the FPPC in November of 2008 for not reporting all the money it had spent to pass Prop 8. The Mormon Church was prosecuted, investigated for 18 months, pled guilty on 13 counts of election fraud and was fined by the FPPC. I am also responsible for the ongoing 2½ year investigation of NOM by the state of Maine for money laundering in that state's 2009 election to repeal gay marriage.
In the Maine case, the Attorney General's office subpoenaed 29 documents, including NOM's 2008 federal tax returns. Exhibit #10 is where these 11 missing large contributions appeared. The names were never reported to the California Secretary of State as required by law.
Was NOM Trying to Protect its Mega-Donors?
In 2008 the brand new NOM was trying to flex its muscles on Prop 8 and show what a great fundraiser it was, but its two leaders Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown somehow forgot to report over $345,000 in contributions that they received that year.
Missing from NOM's campaign reports was $100,000 from Sean Fieler of the New York based Equinox Partners who also serves as Chairman of NOM's American Principles Project. NOM also inadvertently left off the $150,000 that it received from "Delivery from Heaven Foundation" President Michael Casey. Casey and Fieler had each previously given $5,000 to NOM's legal arm ActRight.
The recently unsealed documents in Maine also revealed that NOM received $10,000 from Mitt Romney on October 14, 2008 through his Alabama PAC "Free and Strong America" which it did not report. That was only 3 weeks before the Prop 8 election. NOM board member Craig Cardon of Mesa, Arizona gave $25,000 that NOM did not report either. Elder Cardon is a member of the Mormon Church First Quorum of the Seventy and had served as a stake president, bishop, high councilor, counselor in a stake presidency and bishopric, elders quorum president, institute instructor, and Gospel Doctrine teacher of the Mormon Church.
The "NOM Eleven" Secret Donors
Below is the list of the eleven contributors that the "National Organization for Marriage California -- Yes on 8, Sponsored by National Organization for Marriage" did not report to the California Secretary of State in 2008 and did not want us to see.
Michael Casey - $150,000
Jamestown, RI
Sean Fieler - $100,000
New York, NY
Craig Cardon - $25,000
Mesa, AZ
Free and Strong America (Romney's Alabama PAC) - $10,000
Belmont, CA
Charles Stetson - $20,000
New York, NY
Timothy Busch - $20,000
Irvine, CA
Reported $10,000 $10,000 Not Reported
Brian Harrington - $10,000
Newtown, CT
Brent Bowden - $10,000
Mesa PA
Jim Vargas - $10,000
La Jolla, CA
Kenneth Kremensky - $9,500
El Cajon, CA
Reported $9,100 $400 Not Reported
Mark O'Brien - $5,000
Swathmore, PA
NOM was formed in 2007 to qualify and pass Proposition 8. Ever since 2009, NOM appears to try and launder money through its national organization, its Educational Fund, one of its state PACs or numerous other entities it has established to defeat pro-marriage equality candidates and pass constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage across the U.S.
The statute of limitations on filing campaign ethic's violations in California is five years.
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