A Luxembourg-based subsidiary of Koch Industries has admitted to making illegal campaign contributions to political candidates and committees.
INVISTA is a limited liability company involved in the textile manufacturing business that is organized in Luxembourg but headquartered in Kansas. They admitted in a filing with the Federal Election Commission that was disclosed this week that they made 12 contributions totally $26,800 to various political committees between Nov. 2005 and Oct. 2009.
INVESTA voluntarily disclosed the violations to the FEC in Aug. 2010 after an investigation by Koch Companies Public Sector (KCPA), which represents Koch Industries and their affiliates, and outside counsel. Their investigation revealed that the employees involved with making the donation decisions did not know INVESTA was a foreign entity and did not know that foreign corporations could not contribute to state elections like corporations could.
Under a conciliation agreement with the FEC, INVESTA will pay $4,700 for violating the law. The FEC’s general counsel report notes that KCPA has notified all affiliates of the ban on contributions by foreign nationals and set up more rigorous accounting practices to prevent it from happening in the future.
KCPA has requested refunds of all the donations from the various political committees that received the money. The only outstanding donation? A $15,000 payment to the Democratic Governors Association, circa 2007. A footnote in the FEC’s general counsel report notes that the DGA has “committed to return the contribution.”
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