GOP super PAC claiming Trump connection under investigation by election officials: report
Federal Election Commission officials are investigating a Republican super PAC that appears to have received a Small Business Administration loan from an emergency pandemic relief program, reported The Daily Beast on Thursday.
"On Wednesday, the Federal Election Commission sent two notices to a Republican super PAC called 'America Great PAC' inquiring about the circumstances surrounding repayments it made for a $16,500 SBA loan it received in June 2020 as part of the COVID relief program," reported Roger Sollenberger. Federal law does not permit PACs of any kind to take loans from the SBA, he noted; for example: "In 2021, the Justice Department sentenced a Nevada man to 46 months in prison for 'fundraising for fake political action committees (PACs) that he created, and the other involving COVID-19 relief funds he sought and received through fraudulent applications.'"
"America Great PAC" is not to be confused with Great America PAC or Save America PAC, two more serious operations that have supported former President Donald Trump. According to the report, America Great PAC is likely "a vehicle for a wide-ranging scam PAC network."
"The group’s website has a donation form with sample text listing an address and phone number tied directly to several identical scam PAC websites, all with different names, but operating under America Great super PAC," said the report. "Many of the sites use the names and images of Republican presidential candidates to raise money on their behalf — such as supportrondesantis.com, donatetrump2024.com, and donatevivek.com — with multiple sites for each candidate. The network also runs a political merch operation called 'US Party Supply,' and the PAC’s operator — D.C. area resident Jason Pallante — is also tied to groups with names like 'Republican National Committee Donor Support' and 'Republican National Hispanic Assembly.'"
One donor to the group, Carl Kasalek, told The Beast he was scammed into giving a $100,000 donation to the group, sending them a wire transfer after the group's address was undeliverable, and that when he contacted the group, they represented themselves as affiliated with Trump's own campaign.
"Scam PACs" have proliferated wildly over the years. Raw Story recently reported that as of last month, a federally indicted operator of such allegedly fraudulent groups, Robert Piaro, was still raising money for fake firefighter and EMS groups.