Shell Company Steering $2.6-M To GOP PACs Hit For Illicit Funding

By The Financial District
May 14, 2024
2 min read

A complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleges that a shell company with ties to the former chief financial officer of the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) illegally steered nearly $2.6 million to half a dozen political committees, Jimmy Cloutier reported for OpenSecrets.

The complaint filed May 7 by the nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center (CLC) revolves around Ardleigh Impact Corp., a company incorporated in Delaware on Oct. 24, 2023, which appears to exist only on paper.

CLC found no reference to the company online.

But barely three months after it was organized, it made multiple large donations to six super PACs connected to high-ranking GOP and conservative groups.

In February, the three-month-old company funneled $150,000 to AFC Victory Fund, another $200,000 went to More Jobs, Less Government, the following month, it steered $700,000 to Defend Ohio Values and $625,000 to Buckeye Leadership Fund.

It also donated $500,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund, House Republicans’ main PAC, and $400,000 to Conservatives for American Excellence, which seeks to defeat GOP candidates aligned with members of the hardline Freedom Caucus.

CLC argues that Ardleigh Impact does not appear to have conducted any business activity from which it could have generated enough money to make the donations.

Likewise, CLC alleges that whoever is behind the company violated federal law by using it as a “straw donor” to hide the identity of the true contributor.

Records do not provide an address for Ardleigh Impact, but the address listed in federal campaign finance reports is a home in Springfield, Va. that belongs to Michael Goede and Staci Goede. Michael is an account manager at the American Society of Clinical Oncology while Staci Goede is the former chief financial officer of the RSLC.