Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has given over $3 million to a mysterious company that appears to have been first incorporated in November of last year.
The owners of the limited liability company, called Launchpad Strategies LLC, are not publicly disclosed on campaign finance records, fitting with a strategy Trump’s campaign has used in the past to hide exactly whom the campaign is paying, NBC News reported.
While state business records show that Launchpad Strategies was incorporated in Delaware, campaign finance filings list an address in Raleigh, North Carolina. Last week, however, state officials in North Carolina confirmed that it is not registered in the state.
“We don’t have a business entity by that name in our Business Registration database,” Liz Proctor, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina secretary of state, told the outlet.
The company has received $3.1 million in payments from the Trump campaign and an affiliated joint fundraising committee.
“It’s concerning to see a company formed just six months ago suddenly receive over $3.1 million from Donald Trump’s network of political committees, particularly since there is virtually no public information about this company,” Saurav Ghosh, the Campaign Legal Center's director of federal campaign finance reform, told NBC News. She said tha
“Who works there, what services they offer or have provided, and whether Trump’s payments to ‘Launchpad Strategies LLC’ are for bona fide services or are, instead, actually payments to other vendors funneled through a mere corporate shell.”
The payments Launchpad Strategies has received this year make it the the second largest vendor used by the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, the financial hub for Trump fundraising efforts.
Federal and state campaign finance disclosure filings show that Launchpad Strategies has no history of political work for other state-level or federal candidates.
“The company website shows a black sky rising above grey clouds — the crosshairs cursor shows its location along the x and y axes. The only words that appear are the company's name and a contact form,” RawStory reported.
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