Patagonia Hit With FEC Complaint Alleging Straw Donor Operation That Funneled More Than $1 Million to Democrats

The outdoor clothing and equipment giant Patagonia and its executives may soon be under investigation by the Federal Election Commission after a complaint was filed against them alleging that they set up an illegal straw donor scheme to hide donations sent to Democratic campaigns. In total, more than $1.4 million was dispersed to Democrats’ political operations at both the presidential and congressional level, according to the complaint. The shell company named in the complaint is called Save Our Home Planet Action, or SOHPA. It was incorporated in Delaware only in August, and in the course of just one month sent approximately $1.425 million across five political action committees supporting Democratic candidates. The Senate Majority PAC and the House Majority PAC — which support Democratic Senate and House candidates, respectively — received a combined $900,000. The LCV Victory Fund, which supports candidates committed to advancing green energy and phasing out fossil fuels, received $425,000. The latter group exclusively supported Democrats this year. The PAC for America’s Future received $50,000 to support Democratic legislative candidates, while Ms. Harris’s top outside spending group, Future Forward PAC, received $50,000 in the alleged straw donor scheme. The FEC complaint was filed by the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan group that advocates for more transparency in campaign financing. The group says that Patagonia and its executives are almost certainly the culprits of the straw donor operation, which was allegedly set up to conceal the identities of those who were supporting Democrats this year. The Campaign Legal Center says that the address listed along with the receipts for SOHPA’s donations to the five Democratic political action committees is the same address as Patagonia’s corporate headquarters at Ventura, California. SOHPA’s name is also seemingly lifted directly from one of Patagonia’s own mottos, which is, “to save our home planet.”“These connections, CLC alleges, strongly suggest that Patagonia or its executives may be the true source of the contributions made in SOHPA’s name,” the group said in a statement that announced their FEC filing. “This is just the latest example of how wealthy corporate special interests are using straw donor schemes to secretly spend enormous amounts of money on our elections,” the director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center, Saurav Ghosh, said in a statement. “The FEC must investigate who really contributed over $1.4 million through this scheme, and hold any violators accountable for depriving the public of this vital information.” The founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, is a prolific political donor, and in the past has described himself as “an avowed socialist.” Over the course of his life, he has made more than $1.2 million in donations to political candidates and activist groups. His largest known donation was a $500,000 check to NextGen Climate Action Committee in 2014. Ahead of the 2020 election, he promised that he would dedicate himself to defeating all “climate deniers.”“We’re going to spend a lot of money and basically say, vote the climate deniers out. Anyone who is a climate denier or even on the fence, vote them out because they are evil. They are out to destroy our planet, and we’re not going to stand for it,” Mr. Chouinard said at the time. Patagonia did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

Patagonia Hit With FEC Complaint Alleging Straw Donor Operation That Funneled More Than $1 Million to Democrats

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