{"id":230945,"date":"2021-03-16T16:30:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T20:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=230945"},"modified":"2021-03-16T16:30:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T20:30:42","slug":"illinois-law-firm-fined-for-illegal-donations-to-failed-democratic-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-law-firm-fined-for-illegal-donations-to-failed-democratic-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Law Firm Fined for Illegal Donations to Failed Democratic Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/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%2Fillinois-law-firm-fined-for-illegal-donations-to-failed-democratic-candidate%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=230945&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><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-617788868-e1615220940900.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An Illinois law firm was slapped with a&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/files\/legal\/murs\/7102\/7102_44.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$14,500 fine<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for illegally reimbursing employees\u2019 donations to a failed Democratic candidate, newly released FEC documents show.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keefe, Keefe &amp; Unsell, P.C., a&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/keefeandkeefe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">medical malpractice<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and personal injury law firm, was fined for conducting a &#8220;straw donor&#8221; scheme to benefit C.J. Baricevic, who ran to represent Illinois&#8217; 12<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;Congressional District in 2016. Seven employees gave a total of $18,900 to Baricevic&#8217;s campaign at the request of the firm&#8217;s owner, Thomas Keefe Jr., <a href=\"https:\/\/keefeandkeefe.com\/thomas-q-keefe-jr\/\">considered<\/a>&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">one of America&#8217;s top lawyers.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"posts-content__category-widget md:hidden -ml-4 -mr-4 my-8 px-4 py-6 bg-gray-100\">\n<h4 class=\"mt-0 text-red-600 font-medium font-sans uppercase\">Recent Stories in Democrats<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"list-none p-0 \">\n<li class>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/illinois-law-firm-fined-for-illegal-donations-to-failed-democratic-candidate\/\"><strong>Illinois Law Firm Fined for Illegal Donations to Failed Democratic Candidate<\/strong><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/court-sanctions-star-democrat-election-lawyer-for-misleading-filings\/\"><strong>Court Sanctions Star Democrat Election Lawyer for \u2018Misleading&#8217; Filings<\/strong><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/a-texas-democrat-is-running-as-a-champion-of-political-christians-she-pans-them-in-her-book\/\"><strong>A Texas Democrat Is Running as a Champion of Political Christians. She Pans Them in Her Book.<\/strong><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the FEC documents, on March 2, 2016, the employees\u2014including an attorney, receptionist, and two secretaries\u2014donated the maximum contribution of $2,700 to Baricevic&#8217;s campaign. The firm <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/files\/legal\/murs\/7102\/7102_44.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">later reimbursed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> employees for their contributions, in violation of campaign finance law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Straw donations are one of the most serious and egregious violations of campaign finance law,&#8221; said Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">who filed<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the complaint over the scheme&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/files\/legal\/murs\/7102\/7102_01.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nearly five<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> years ago. &#8220;Sometimes the system takes a long time to work, and, although ideally it would have been resolved sooner, it is a good thing that there has finally been some accountability in this case.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keefe, Keefe &amp; Unsell, P.C. did not respond to a request for comment on their violation.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FEC is gradually working through a massive backlog of enforcement cases. In 2020, the commission was unable to operate for a majority of the year due to it only having three members. At least four members are needed to meet to issue advisory opinions and enforce campaign finance law. It wasn&#8217;t until December that quorum was&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/12\/24\/949672803\/the-federal-election-commission-can-finally-meet-again-and-it-has-a-big-backlog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">restored<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with six members and the commission was allowed to operate again.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"my-8 hide-print\">\n\t\t<!-- \/339474670\/Freebeacon\/InContent --><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1526555381173-4\" class=\"mobile-250 desktop-90\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Illinois law firm was slapped with a\u00a0$14,500 fine for illegally reimbursing employees\u2019 donations to a failed Democratic candidate, newly released FEC documents show.\u00a0 Keefe, Keefe &#038; Unsell, P.C., a\u00a0medical &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310614,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-617788868-e1615220940900.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Illinois Law Firm Fined for Illegal Donations to Failed Democratic Candidate","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-617788868-e1615220940900.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Illinois Law Firm Fined for Illegal Donations to Failed Democratic Candidate","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230945","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}