October 29, 2008
Obama's illegal fund raising finally getting some attention
The illegal credit card fund raising scams being run by Obama's website is finally getting a smidgen of attention from the MSM.
The Washington Post:
Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity, campaign officials confirmed.
Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.
The Obama organization said its extensive review has ensured that the campaign has refunded any improper contributions, and noted that Federal Election Commission rules do not require front-end screening of donations.
In recent weeks, questionable contributions have created headaches for Obama's accounting team as it has tried to explain why campaign finance filings have included itemized donations from individuals using fake names, such as Es Esh or Doodad Pro. Those revelations prompted conservative bloggers to further test Obama's finance vetting by giving money using the kind of prepaid cards that can be bought at a drugstore and cannot be traced to a donor.
The problem with such cards, campaign finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions.
The Obama campaign has 3 million individual donors. There is no possible way for them to check - no matter how often they tell us - that those donations are all on the up and up. Also, the problems aren't just with the pre paid credit cards. False names and addresses are also going through which opens up the possibility of massive fraud as perhaps hundreds or thousands of people may have exceeded the $2300 limit.
Well, the story is out their journos. Perhaps a little investigating (better late than never) will uncover some facts that might show our Messiah trying to buy this election using illegal donations. Or it might absolve him of all blame.
Either way, if journalists would just do their jobs, they wouldn't have to rely on bloggers to do it for them.
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky