Swiss-born billionaire, ‘dark money’ mega-donor to Dem causes hit with lawsuit over citizenship status

A government watchdog group has filed a lawsuit with the Federal Elections Commission demanding that the regulatory agency scrutinize Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss’s spending habits to determine whether he’s been making illegal contributions to the Democrat Party.

In a suit filed late last month, Americans for Public Trust noted that, though Wyss reportedly lives in Wyoming, he “has admitted he’s not a U.S. citizen,” meaning he isn’t allowed to donate directly to political candidates or to political action committees.

According to U.S. law, non-citizens who lack a green card are only allowed to donate to advocacy groups. Filed on April 26th, the suit outlines exactly how Wyss has allegedly overcome this legal hurdle.

“Mr. Wyss contributes tens of millions of dollars to two nonprofit organizations that he established, the Wyss Foundation and the Berger Action Fund. Those entities then transfer the funds contributed by Mr. Wyss to two other nonprofit organizations that are not outwardly affiliated with Mr. Wyss, the New Venture Fund and the
Sixteen Thirty Fund,” the suit reads.

“Finally, New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund use these contributions to fund the political advocacy of ‘The Hub Project,’ which is not a stand-alone entity but a trademark registered to the New Venture Fund that operates its own Super PAC, Change Now,” it continued.

All the aforementioned groups are currently classified as non-profits in one fashion or another. Americans for Public Trust essentially argues that this is a false classification that’s hiding the groups’ true behavior and purpose.

By “operating through this network of nonprofits,” the suit claims, “Mr. Wyss is able to conceal his prohibited contributions.”

Similarly, by “conducting their political spending under a different (trademarked) name, the New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund are able to conceal the true extent of their political activity and avoid registering as political committees with the FEC, a step which would require the public disclosure of their donors.”

Regarding Wyss’ lack of citizenship, as proof Americans for Public Trust has cited “a 2021 Securities and Exchange Commission filing in which Wyss listed his citizenship as a ‘citizen of Switzerland,'” “a 2021 interview with Swiss news outlet Blick to argue that Wyss can’t donate to U.S. political candidates,” and “a 2014 speech in which Wyss said he only carries a Swiss passport, not a U.S. passport or green card,” according to The Hill.

In a statement to the outlet, Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland slammed the FEC for doing nothing amid Wyss’ alleged violations of law.

“Americans for Public Trust is suing the FEC for failing to investigate foreign money in our elections. Mr. Wyss, who is barred from directly or indirectly influencing our elections, has done just that by potentially funneling hundreds of millions of dollars through the Arabella Advisors network to benefit liberal and left-wing causes. Until the FEC takes action, we won’t know the full extent of his foreign interference in our electoral process,” she said.

A spokesperson for both the Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund has meanwhile claimed both groups “expressly prohibit their grant recipients from using funding from the organizations to support or oppose political candidates or parties or to engage in partisan voter registration and get out the vote efforts.”

As previously reported, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, one of the Berger Action Fund’s recipients, is an uber-powerful operation that spent $400 million during the 2020 presidential election alone.

“Sixteen Thirty Fund spent widely on a range of liberal causes, from swing-state TV ads and left-leaning ballot measures, to campaigns opposing Trump’s judicial picks and his health care and tax policies. It played a major role in the 2018 midterms as well, when Democrats flipped control of the House of Representatives,” according to a Politico report from March.

The group’s only known donors are Wyss’ Berger Action Fund and tech billionaire Pierre Omidyar and his wife. The rest of its donors “remain shrouded in mystery,” thus making the group a “dark money” operation.

“In 2020, nearly 200 nonprofits, groups, and individual donors sponsored projects through Sixteen Thirty Fund, helping us grow immensely from 2019 to 2020,” Sixteen Thirty Fund president Amy Kurtz said to Politico about the group’s donors.

“Apart from the growth we saw in 2020, we continued to sponsor advocacy projects supported by the Berger Action Fund’s grants around biodiversity, tax fairness, and preserving the Affordable Care Act,” she added.

The Sixteen Project has also donated to the Lincoln Project, a discredited group that has a history of running ads against Republican candidates for office:

Vivek Saxena

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