The Jeb Bush super PAC Right to Rise has been fined a record $390,000 by the Federal Election Commission for illegally soliciting a contribution from a foreign national.
The Chinese-owned corporation that made the donation, American Pacific International Capital, was fined $550,000. The settlement agreement, posted online by the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, states that American Pacific International Capital made a $1.3 million contribution to Right to Rise.
This is the third-highest fine in FEC history, CNN reports, and the largest since the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which lets corporations and labor unions spend an unlimited amount of money to support or denounce candidates in elections.
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Per the settlement, Bush's brother, American Pacific International Capital board member Neil Bush, solicited the contributions, knowing that "fellow board members Gordon Tang and Huaidan Chen were foreign nationals." Because of a legal memo drafted by Right to Rise's counsel, they thought the contributions were acceptable, the settlement states, and "the commission did not find that the violations were knowing and willful."
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