Posts Tagged ‘scam’
Thursday, August 17th, 2017
A commenter brought this up on a previous Dan Backer thread: Committee To Defend the President is another Dan Backer scam PAC, like so many others. (For those unfamiliar with Mr. Backer’s methods, he runs dozens of scam PACs that claim to be raising money for conservative causes and candidates, but somehow the vast majority of the money raised always seems to find it’s way into his pockets, much through “consulting” fees paid to other entities he owns.) That made me wonder how many more Dan Backer scam PACs had sprung up since I last looked. The tell, as usual, is sharing the same address as other Dan Backer scam PACs (203 South Union Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA, 22314).
And I found even more using an Open Secrets Search.
So here’s a comprehensive round-up of all the Dan Backer scam PACs and related organizations I’ve found, with the new ones in bold. Some of these are probably defunct.
American Defense News
Bit PAC
The Capitol Foundation: “The Capitol Foundation operates in and around the Greater Washington, DC metro region of DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Our mailing address is: 203 South Union Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA 22314. We can be reached at 202-210-5431 or via email at info@TheCapitolFoundation.org.”
Citizen Revolt PAC
Combat Veterans for Congress PAC (Actual address is in San Diego, and they seem to have sent more money on than the usual Becker PAC, but he’s still listed as Treasurer.)
Committee To Defend the President
The Committee to Draft Judge Andrew Napolitano for President
Conservative Action Fund
Conservative America Now
Constitutional Rights PAC
DB Capitol Strategies, consultancy owned and operated by Dan Backer, and the recipient of lots of his PAC’s “expenditures.”
Draft Newt
EaglesPAC
EndJeb2016.com
Finelli PAC
Freedom to Carry PAC
Freshman Hold’em PAC
Gator PAC
George Washington Leadership Foundation
Grassroots Victory
Great America PAC
In Flanders Field Fund: Subsidiary of The Capitol Foundation
InnovationPAC
Liberty USA PAC
One Nation PAC
Patriots for Economic Freedom
Peach Tea PAC
Progress Action Fund PAC (PAF PAC)
Restore Colorado
Revolution PAC
Special Operations Speaks
Stand With Rand
Stop Hillary PAC
Stop Pelosi PAC
Stop Reckless Economic Instability Caused by Democrats (go by ‘STOP R.E.I.D.’)
Stark360 PAC
Tea Party Forward
The Tea Party Leadership Fund
Themis PAC
Women Warriors PAC
ZetePAC (another Zeta Psi PAC)
ZP Action PAC (“ZP Action is in no way affiliated with Zeta Psi Fraternity of N.A. or the Zeta Psi Educational Foundation”)
There are too many worthy conservative causes and organizations you could be donating to to ever give anything associated with Dan Backer a dime.
Tags:American Defense News, Bit PAC, Capitol Foundation, Citizen Revolt PAC, Combat Veterans for Congress PAC, Committee To Defend the President, Conservative Action Fund, Conservative America Now, Constitutional Rights PAC, corrupt scumbags, Dan Backer, DB Capitol Strategies, Draft Newt, EaglesPAC, EndJeb2016.com, Finelli PAC, fraud, Freedom to Carry PAC, Freshman Hold'em PAC, Gator PAC, In Flanders Field Fund, innovationPAC, Liberty USA PAC, One Nation PAC, PAC, Patriots for Economic Freedom, Peach Tea PAC, Progress Action Fund PAC (PAF PAC), Restore Colorado, Revolution PAC, scam, Special Operations Speaks, Stand With Rand, Stark360 PAC, Stop Hillary PAC, Stop Pelosi PAC, Stop Reckless Economic Instability Caused by Democrats (go by 'STOP R.E.I.D.'), Tea Party Forward, Tea Party Leadership Fund, The Committee to Draft Judge Andrew Napolitano for President, Themis PAC, Women Warriors PAC, Zeta Psi, ZetePAC, ZP Action PAC
Posted in Republicans, Waste and Fraud | 2 Comments »
Saturday, May 14th, 2016
Hey, remember Dan Backer, the man behind such scam PACs as Stop Hillary PAC, Conservative Action Now and Patriots for Economic Freedom? Now he has a new Great America PAC ostensibly supporting Trump, run out of the same building as his other scam PACs.
If past experiences with his other PACs are any guide, expect lots of money to disappear into the pockets of Dan Becker and his associates, and very little spent supporting Trump. Which is probably one reason the Trump campaign has already disavowed Great America PAC. As of the last reporting cycle, Great America PAC sent a whopping total of $10 to the Donald J. Trump For President campaign.
Here’s another mystery: The top Great America PAC donor for the cycle was listed as Atlanta IT firm Revily Inc. giving $100,000. And the top recipient of Great America PAC expenditures? Revily Inc., who received…$100,000.
I just sent Revily Inc. an email asking about the amount. I’ll let you know if they reply.
Tags:2016 Presidential Race, Dan Backer, Donald Trump, Elections, Great America PAC, PAC, Republicans, Revily Inc., scam
Posted in Elections, Republicans | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015
Recently I received a solicitation email from a “Stop Hillary PAC.” Well guess what? It’s another Dan Backer scam PAC.
Like “Conservative Action Fund” or “Patriots for Economic Freedom” or any of a number of scam PACs run by Backer and his associates Tyler Whitney and Michael Gruccio, they’re happy to take money from gullible conservatives, but almost none of that money ever ends up supporting actual candidates. Instead it gets channeled into the pockets of a small number of consultants.
Among the consultants getting the lions share of Stop Hillary PAC disbursements (warning: big PDF):
DB Capitol Strategies (owned and operated by Dan Backer)
American Action News, which has recently started spamming me with pro-Donald Trump email, and which, surprise surprise, has the exact same address as DB Capitol Strategies (203 S. Union St., Suite 300 Alexandria, VA 22314)!
Campaign Solutions of Alexandria, Virginia
Strategic Fundraising, which may be defunct
A Ted Harvey of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, which I assume is this Colorado State Representative.
For the record, here are the other groups that show up for that same 203 S. Union St., Suite 300 Alexandria, VA 22314 address:
American Defense News
Conservative America Now
Constitutional Rights PAC
EndJeb2016.com
innovationPAC
Special Operations Speaks
Stand With Rand
Stark360 PAC
The Tea Party Leadership Fund
ZP Action PAC (“ZP Action is in no way affiliated with Zeta Psi Fraternity of N.A. or the Zeta Psi Educational Foundation”)
It looks like I may a little late to this party: Someone outed Stop Hillary PAC as a Dan Backer scam last year. But boy does his weedy garden of fake PACs and sham news sources continue to grow like Topsy…
Tags:American Action News, American Defense News, Campaign Solutions, Constitutional Rights PAC, Dan Backer, DB Capitol Strategies, Donald Trump, Elections, innovationPAC, Michael Gruccio, PAC, Rand Paul, Republicans, scam, Special Operations Speaks, Stand With Rand, Stark360 PAC, Stop Hillary PAC, Tea Party Leadership Fund, Ted Harvey, ZP Action PAC
Posted in Elections, Republicans | 7 Comments »
Monday, March 2nd, 2015
If you remember my pieces exposing Conservative Action Fund, Conservative America Now and Patriots for Economic Freedom as scam PACs, you know it’s an ongoing concern.
Now Right Wing news has done an in-depth piece on 17 high-profile PACs, only three of which gave more than 50% of the money raised to candidates. It was particularly disappointing to see Tea Party Express use only miserable 5% of the funds raised on candidates and campaigns.
Read the whole thing, including their caveats about the difficulty in measuring spending from some groups.
Tags:Elections, fundraising, PAC, Republicans, scam, Tea Party, Tea Party Express
Posted in Elections, Republicans | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 29th, 2014
I just got a Breitbart direct email solicitation from a “Conservative Action Fund” talking about David Perdue’s race against Michelle Nunn in Georgia.
Well, guess what? Conservative Action Fund is another Dan Backer scam PAC, just like Patriots for Economic Freedom.
You know how much money they’ve contributed to conservative candidates in 2014? Zero.
If you want to contribute money to David Perdue, do it directly.
And Breitbart should kick “Conservative Action Fund” off their list of accepted advertisers.
Tags:Breitbart, Crime, Dan Backer, Elections, fundraising, Republicans, scam
Posted in Crime, Elections, Republicans | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2014
I’m on enough mailing lists that I get a lot of campaign/PAC/etc. solicitations. One of the ones I get pretty regularly in email are missives from “Patriots for Economic Freedom” seemingly soliciting for one or another notable conservative candidates.
Take, for example, this one for Ted Cruz. They’ve also done solicitations featuring Allen West and Mia Love, and I just got one this morning for Oklahoma Senate candidate T. W. Shannon.
Just one tiny little problem: Ted Cruz never authorized Patriots for Economic Freedom to solicit on his behalf.
Well, actually two problems: The money Patriots for Economic Freedom raises doesn’t seem to get to the candidates. Indeed, the lion’s share seems to go to consultants Tyler Whitney and Dan Backer.
That’s right: “Patriots for Economic Freedom” is a scam PAC, and has been pulling their scam since at least 2012.
I don’t know who exactly is selling Patriots for Economic Freedom their email list (though I’m looking in your direction, NRO and Breitbart), but they need to stop. Every dollar spent supporting a scam PAC is a dollar not spent actually supporting a conservative candidate.
And someone should consider suing Patriots for Economic Freedom for false advertising.
And if you want to donate to Allen West, Mia Love or T.W. Shannon, do it directly.
Tags:Crime, Dan Backer, Elections, fundraising, Lee Stranahan, Mia Love, Patriots for Economic Freedom, scam, T. W. Shannon, Ted Cruz, Tyler Whitney
Posted in Crime, Elections | 6 Comments »
Friday, March 14th, 2014
Well here’s a new scam:
We would like to express our deepest sorrow for the untimely death of your beloved
friend and inform you about the life service celebration that will take place at
Hubbell Funeral Home on March 13, 2014 at 2:00 p.m.
Please follow this link to get funeral invitation.
Please be there to honor the memory of your friend with her closest people.
Our best wishes and prayers,
Alexander Howard,
Funeral home assistant
Yeah, it’s a phising scam.
Needless to say, don’t click on that link…
Tags:Crime, scam
Posted in Crime | 1 Comment »