By Peter H. Stone
The conservative grassroots goliath, Americans for Prosperity, has confirmed that it had financial transactions with at least one charity in Wisconsin founded by Mark Block, chief of staff for Herman Cain’s presidential campaign. The group is reviewing those transactions,
iWatch News has learned.
Block for about five years was Wisconsin state director of the tax-exempt nonprofit
Americans for Prosperity. Early in 2010 Block launched Prosperity USA, a charity that shelled out $40,000 to cover charter air flights, iPads and other items for the Cain campaign, according to financial documents disclosed by the
Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.
One financial document cited by the paper shows that over $37,000 was listed as owed to Prosperity USA by FOH, which stands for Friends of Herman Cain, his campaign committee. It’s unclear whether those funds have been repaid. Cain’s campaign disclosures don’t list any debts to the charity.
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Campaign finance experts said that if AFP funds were passed through charities to the Cain campaign, it would be an illegal contribution. “A tax-exempt organization cannot make contributions to a presidential campaign and cannot use intermediaries to mask its role in making contributions,” said Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21 and a veteran reform advocate.
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