Mr. Schwalb is also considering investigating Arabella Advisors, a consulting firm founded by former Clinton administration officials that manages a small number of nonprofit organizations, as a liberal “dark finance” group, the Republican attorney general said. recently confirmed to Politico that Mr. Schwalb had complained that Mr. Arabella should be investigated instead.
“Arabella Advisors abides by the law and will cooperate with the District of Columbia Attorney General’s civil investigation,” Arabella spokesman Steve Sampson said in a statement. “We are confident in the systems we have in place to ensure our business complies with regulatory requirements, and Arabella Advisors is proud of our work.”
The subpoena comes weeks after Politico reported that Mr. Schwalb was investigating a multibillion-dollar underground finance network affiliated with Mr. Leo.
The investigation and subsequent subpoenas are being conducted in response to the duel. Complaints from liberal and conservative watchdog groups The lawsuit began after POLITICO reported that the lifestyles of Mr. Leo and several of his supporters took a more lavish turn starting in 2016, when he was selected as an unpaid consultant on former President Donald Trump’s judicial nominations. It was a year.
Arabella was the subject of a complaint by an American citizen to the watchdog Public Trust. Largely funded by DonorsTrust, is often described as the conservative movement’s “dark money ATM” who has donated millions of dollars to nonprofits affiliated with Leo and his consulting firm CRC Advisors. The Campaign for Accountability, a liberal watchdog group previously affiliated with Arabella, filed a complaint with the IRS and the Washington, D.C., attorney general following POLITICO’s reporting on Leo’s lifestyle.
Gabe Schoglow Rubenstein, director of communications for Schwalb, declined to confirm or deny the existence of either spacecraft.
a Wall Street Journal editorial Last week, Mr. Schwalb criticized Mr. Schwalb for failing to investigate Mr. Arabella, saying Mr. Leo’s affiliates were located in Virginia or Texas, so Mr. Schwalb did not have the authority to investigate. The paper cited a recent letter sent to Schwalb from more than a dozen Republican state attorneys general.
In this opinion article, the group located in Leo is Largest donor to the Republican Bar Association Or that one of Leo’s main allies, the 85 Fund, secretly relocated from the Capital Region to Texas in recent months amid the investigation. 85 Fund, which he founded in Virginia for nearly 20 years, used a UPS drop box in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., as its primary office address.
The conservative watchdog’s complaint, filed in mid-August, asks the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether Arabella founder Eric Kessler received more than fair market value in exchange for services provided by the nonprofit. asked. It alleges that more than $228 million has been “misappropriated” to Arabella over the past 20 years.
Leo has pointed to Arabella as an inspiration in promoting President Trump’s Supreme Court picks, filing briefs before the court, and, most recently, founding a network of nonprofit organizations that have been in the past. For 10 years, they have spent tens of millions of dollars filing briefs in court. push for voting restrictions and blame the democrats Regarding fraud in the 2020 election.
Liberals point to a key difference between the Arabella and Leo networks, many of which are registered as “charitable” and “social welfare” organizations controlled by a small number of allies.
Leo is considered the architect of the ultra-conservative Supreme Court and recently $1.6 billion donationIt is believed to be the largest political donation from a far-right billionaire in U.S. history. President Trump selected three Supreme Court nominees from a list created by Leo: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Arabella, which says on its website that it focuses on “philanthropy” and “impact investing,” provides human resources, legal and other government services to nonprofit organizations as a vendor. Although the company emphasizes that it does not dictate customers’ spending decisions, Leo declined to say what services were provided in exchange for the $43 million that flowed into his company over two years. are doing.
Mr. Schwalb took office in January.has a background in tax law. served as a trial lawyer He worked in the Justice Department’s Tax Division under former President Bill Clinton.