This is real and important journalism. - MattMatt was kind enough to mention Colorado Confidential's investigative report in his post today on How the Right-wing Machine Works
Here's more of the story:
On Friday,
Colorado Confidential.com broke the news story that one of the most influential pro-GOP 527 organizations in the country -- founded by beer baron Pete Coors, Gov. Bill Owens, and oilman Bruce Benson -- has engaged in a curious series of financial transactions that literally don't add up.
Contributions to other political committees that Trailhead claims in its IRS filings are not found on the recipient's books, and contributions from those committees back to Trailhead either don't match Trailhead's records or don't appear at all. And on one occasion, a contribution was made to an organization for which Colorado Confidential can find no record of existence.
See
Trailhead to Nowhere for more information.
Today, we uncover several new factors which have come to light including two complaints that were filed against Trailhead and its mathematically-challenged 527 kinfolk this afternoon.
Curiouser and Curiouser
First, the Colorado Good Government Initiative (CGGI), one of the beneficiaries of Trailhead's largesse to the tune of $20,000, had no online records to verify its existence at the Colorado Secretary of State's website, nor the IRS, Google, or charity watchdog Guidestar when we were researching the group ahead of our story that posted on Friday afternoon. Strangely, on Friday evening we discover a lone state registration for CGGI though no records exist anywhere else.
Coincidence? Odd quirk? Probably not. But no one can say for sure.
Oh, You Mean THAT $100,000
Next, we find that the Colorado Leadership Fund filed an amended IRS return <u>less than three hours after</u> the posting of our original story that two $50,000 transactions to and from Trailhead are not mentioned in their first quarter federal report.
Campaign finance expert tells
Colorado Confidential: "If they are not listing these transactions, that is against the law. It's called not filing an accurate report, and that's something the IRS should be enforcing."
Spreading Wealth Around
Then, we drill down into the financial reports and untangle the complex web of wealthy political operatives giving hefty donations to Trailhead as well as the two other Colorado 527s where the odd transactions originally occured that were not or were improperly recorded.
This raises many more questions as to their motives and aims.
Ethics Group Files Complaint Against Trailhead
This afternoon, Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government, a nonprofit watchdog group, filed a formal complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against Trailhead, Colorado Good Government Initiative, the Senate Majority Fund, and the Colorado Leadership Fund, citing a violation of campaign finance disclosure law.
Also later today, Clear Peak Colorado, another statewide watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Colorado Secretary of State against Trailhead, the Senate Majority Fund, and Colorado Leadership Fund alleging that the questionable transactions were a money laundering scheme "executed with the apparent intent to convert corporate contributions into 527 contributions that can then be used for electioneering."
I Am Trailhead
To add insult to injury,
Colorado Confidential finds that the Trailhead Group, LLC, is not registered to do business in the state of Colorado. So our reporter bought the name for $25.
Believe it or not. There's even more to come.
