Two voting advocacy organizations founded by unsuccessful Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams were fined an historic $300,000 by the Georgia Ethics Commission for violating campaign finance laws to bolster Abram’s 2018 primary and general election campaigns.
On Wednesday the commission entered into a consent agreement with the two groups: the New Georgia Project and the New Georgia Project Action Fund. “This certainly represents the largest fine imposed in the history of Georgia’s Ethics Commission, but it also appears to be the largest ethics fine ever imposed by any state ethics commission in the country related to an election and campaign finance case,” a commission statement said.
The two left-wing groups admitted to failing to disclose about $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures that were used during Abrams’ election efforts in 2018, according to the consent order. They were charged with a total of 16 violations, including failing to register as a political committee and failure to disclose millions of dollars in political contributions.
Commission Chairman David Emadi, in a statement to James Magazine Online, said:
“It’s important to send a message with this fine to future bad actors who come here and break the law that we’re going to come after you. During the investigation, we also saw some things that concerned us, particularly regarding the corporate structure and the tax implications. So regarding my responsibilities pursuant to Georgia law, I also reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice and referred this case for federal investigation by the Internal Revenue Division to determine if there was any corporate tax fraud or tax violations. We met with them and presented them evidence and informed them if there was anything they needed from my office we were willing to help.”
Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2013 with a mission to register more black and young voters. The organization began as a charity that accepted tax-deductible donations, while the New Georgia Project Action Fund was the organization’s fundraising arm. Abrams left as CEO in 2017 to run for governor and was succeeded as CEO by Rev. Raphael Warnock, now a U.S. senator.
