{"id":2002429,"date":"2023-08-16T12:38:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T16:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/liberal-dark-money-behemoth-faces-irs-complaint-over-alleged-bait-and-switch-scheme\/"},"modified":"2023-08-16T12:42:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T16:42:52","slug":"liberal-dark-money-behemoth-faces-irs-complaint-over-alleged-bait-and-switch-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/liberal-dark-money-behemoth-faces-irs-complaint-over-alleged-bait-and-switch-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal dark money giant faces IRS complaint for alleged bait-and-switch."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fliberal-dark-money-behemoth-faces-irs-complaint-over-alleged-bait-and-switch-scheme%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2002429&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>Watchdog Asks for Investigation\u200d into Arabella Advisors Following Free Beacon Report on \u2063Group&#8217;s Alleged Misdeeds<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure><figcaption>The \u200cIRS building \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A watchdog group is demanding an investigation into the liberal \u200cdark\u200b money\u2064 behemoth Arabella Advisors\u200b after a \u2064 <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> report exposed the shadowy organization. Americans for Public Trust has filed an <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/documents\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/rLho51zULTIY\/v0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IRS complaint<\/a> \u200caccusing \u2062Arabella \u2062and its founder, Clintonworld insider Eric Kessler, of deceiving authorities to gain\u2063 control of \u2062five dark money\u200b funds that have since funneled billions of dollars \u2064into Democratic pet projects. Despite claiming to offer only\u200c temporary administrative support, Arabella has maintained\u200b control over these funds for \u200bnearly two decades, pocketing a staggering $330 million in management fees.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eric Kessler has created one of the most intricate and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/liberal-dark-money-behemoth-faces-irs-complaint-over-alleged-bait-and-switch-scheme\/\" title=\"Liberal dark money giant faces IRS complaint for alleged bait-and-switch.\">sophisticated\u2063 dark money networks influencing<\/a> \u200cU.S. politics and policy\u200d today,&#8221; stated Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust. &#8220;Now,\u200d it seems \u2064he misled \u200dthe IRS and\u2064 may have illegally \u200bprofited by redirecting nonprofit funds back\u200b into\u200c his \u2062own pocket through Arabella Advisors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 2006, when the \u2064charity sought a tax-exempt charter, the\u200b IRS expressed concerns that Kessler would derive illegal profits from the largest of Arabella&#8217;s funds,\u2063 the New Venture Fund. The IRS\u2063 questioned why the charity didn&#8217;t seek bids from other administrative support contractors,\u200b considering Kessler&#8217;s control over both Arabella and \u200bthe\u200d fund. However, the IRS eventually approved the arrangement after the New Venture Fund claimed its \u2062contract with Arabella would expire after a year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Advisors are providing management and administrative \u200bsupport services until such time as the Organization\u2064 has sufficient financial resources to\u2064 make the operation of its own back office cost-efficient,&#8221;\u200c stated the New Venture Fund in its application for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/leah-remini-says-her-16-year-old-daughter-keeps-her-woke\/\" title=\"Leah Remini Says Her 16-Year-Old Daughter Keeps Her \u2018Woke\u2019\">tax-exempt status<\/a>.\u2064 &#8220;Further, the \u2064Agreement is anticipated \u2063to\u2064 be temporary and, indeed, only\u200b has a one-year term. As\u2062 soon after this period as the Organization \u200dhas adequate funding, it would \u200bno longer require the\u2063 services of the Advisors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In hindsight, Americans for Public Trust finds these \u200dclaims &#8220;laughable\u2062 and disingenuous.&#8221; The\u200b New Venture Fund has since paid Arabella $166 million in \u2062management fees. According to its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-grants-26-pardons-and-3-commutations-includes-numerous-prominent-names\/\" title=\"Trump Grants 26 Pardons And 3 Commutations, Includes Numerous Prominent Names\">tax returns<\/a>, the fund raised nearly a billion dollars in 2021 alone.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The substantial revenue sums reported by\u200b NVF in \u200drecent years are somehow deemed insufficient to finance the group&#8217;s in-house administrative support services, which is both\u200c laughable and disingenuous,&#8221; stated the watchdog in its IRS\u200c complaint.<\/p>\n<p>This complaint \u200cfollows the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>&#8216;s revelation of internal Arabella records, which exposed \u200dthe consultancy&#8217;s top-down control over its \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/justice-alito-launches-preemptive-strike-on-leftist-hit-piece\/\" title=\"Alito counters leftist attack with preemptive strike.\">dark money funds<\/a>, contradicting the company&#8217;s public claim of being a\u2063 humble back-office support contractor.<\/p>\n<p>Arabella spokesman Steve Sampson dismissed the complaint as &#8220;meritless&#8221;\u200b and accused Americans for Public\u200d Trust of having\u200b an \u200cagenda. He stated, \u200b&#8221;We pride ourselves on\u200b helping our clients identify efficiencies, saving them tens\u2063 of\u200c millions of dollars in operational\u2062 costs and allowing them to focus their resources on their intended\u200c impact. We \u2063are \u2064compensated in \u2062exchange for a series \u2064of robust\u200d administrative and operational \u200dservices, including HR, compliance, accounting, and grants \u2062management, and\u200c our success over the years is \u2063a testament to the services and \u2062expertise\u2062 we provide.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A watchdog group, Americans for Public Trust, has urged the IRS to investigate Arabella Advisors, a liberal dark money organization, after a report by the Washington Free Beacon exposed their alleged wrongdoings. The group seeks transparency and accountability from Arabella Advisors, filing a formal request for investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":2002430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2002429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2002429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2002430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2002429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2002429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2002429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}