{"id":522949,"date":"2021-05-18T18:50:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T22:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=522949"},"modified":"2021-05-18T18:50:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T22:50:12","slug":"report-fbi-investigating-contributions-to-susan-collins-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-fbi-investigating-contributions-to-susan-collins-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: FBI Investigating Contributions To Susan Collins Campaign"},"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\">16<\/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%2Freport-fbi-investigating-contributions-to-susan-collins-campaign%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=522949&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\/05\/susan-collins-scaled-e1621374927448.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<aside id=\"right1forarticles\">\n<\/aside>\n<div id=\"ob-read-more-selector\" readability=\"43.533505154639\">\n<p>The FBI is reportedly probing a series of donations to a Super PAC associated with Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins\u2019 2020 reelection campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Kao, a Hawaii-based defense contractor, allegedly gave $150,000 in straw donations to the pro-Collins 1820 PAC, Axios <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/susan-collins-reelection-investigation-finance-scheme-11280676-b9f6-480d-a47f-c33f3f7ab4ca.html?utm_source=twitter&#038;utm_medium=social&#038;utm_campaign=editorial&#038;utm_content=politics-susancollins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a> Tuesday. Kao, was formerly CEO of Navatek LLC before he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/hawaii-ceo-charged-covid-relief-fraud\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">indicted<\/a> in September 2020 for allegedly defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program out of $12.8 million.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" readability=\"8.2758620689655\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">JUST IN: The FBI is investigating what it calls a massive scheme to illegally finance Sen. Susan Collins\u2019 2020 reelection bid, Axios has learned. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/36nNweHIUc\">https:\/\/t.co\/36nNweHIUc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Axios (@axios) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/axios\/status\/1394756356947775490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 18, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Kao allegedly used straw donors, including an LLC he and his wife created, to get around campaign finance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/help-candidates-and-committees\/taking-receipts-political-party\/who-can-and-cant-contribute-party-committee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">regulations<\/a> that prohibit government contractors from donating to re-election committees, Axios reported. He also reportedly reimbursed family members who donated to the Collins campaign. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2020\/10\/21\/democratic-iowa-senate-candidate-theresa-greenfield-accused-breaking-campaign-finance-laws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Democratic Iowa Senate Candidate Accused Of Breaking Campaign Finance Laws)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Navatek, LLC received an $8 million grant from the US Navy\u2019s Office of Naval Research in 2019 so that it could develop safer ship hulls. Collins spearheaded the grant. \u201cAs a senior member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I strongly advocated for the funding that made this research possible and am so proud of the work Navatek and other Maine industries do to support our Navy and our nation\u2019s defense,\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.collins.senate.gov\/newsroom\/senator-collins-joins-celebration-8-million-navy-contract-awarded-navatek-portland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n<p>An FBI search warrant alleged that a hard drive seized by the FBI in connection with Kao\u2019s 2020 indictment contained information about the straw donations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Collins for Senator Campaign had absolutely no knowledge of anything alleged in the warrant,\u201d a spokeswoman for Collins told Axios.<\/p>\n<p>Collins defeated Democratic state Sen. Sara Gideon to win re-election in November 2020. Despite not <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2020\/11\/04\/republican-maine-senator-susan-collins-trailed-polls-sara-gideon-win-reelection\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">leading<\/a> in a single poll, Collins won by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2020-elections\/maine-senate-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more<\/a> than eight points.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FBI is reportedly probing a series of donations to a Super PAC associated with Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins\u2019 2020 reelection campaign. Martin Kao, a Hawaii-based defense &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278496,"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\/05\/susan-collins-scaled-e1621374927448.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"REPORT: FBI Investigating Contributions To Susan Collins Campaign","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/susan-collins-scaled-e1621374927448.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"REPORT: FBI Investigating Contributions To Susan Collins Campaign","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522949","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=522949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}