Kanye West‘s failed 2020 presidential campaign is coming under fire after committee attorneys and hired campaign treasury experts have uncovered what they allege is serious “fraud and malfeasance” regarding campaign funds.
According to a new series of reports that were first published late last week by Radar Online, Kanye’s committee attorney Bruce Fein and treasurer Devin White are trying to get the artist to “rein in” his 2020 campaign manager, alt-right influencer Milo Yiannopoulos, before billing inconsistencies in the campaign books trigger a “criminal investigation by the FBI.”
Whoa…
Per that outlet’s report, Yiannopoulos is feared to have potentially already broken the law by working on the campaign as a foreign national — which is a direct violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act. Ye could be on the hook legally for that as an alleged co-conspirator if, as the Radar report notes, he knew about Yiannopoulos’ alleged immigration status prior to hiring him on to run his failed 2020 bid for the presidency.
But beyond the foreign national claim alone, Fein and White are reportedly worried that the “vast over billing” of Ye’s campaign in the form of “services provided by non-U.S. citizen lacking a green card” could prove to be a campaign finance issue.
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In sum, the pair of experts claimed the campaign spent about $13.5 million in total which was reportedly “mostly funded by Kanye.” However, much of that money is unaccounted for, with White telling the news outlet that he’s unable to figure out exactly what work was completed based on receipts from the failed campaign:
“I don’t know what they did. There appears to be fraud and malfeasance taking place in the campaign and at this point, Bruce Fein and I believe that from inception this was a strawman created for other purposes versus a bonafide effort to run for president.”
Fein was even more direct:
“My God, it looked like a crime scene! I was truly stunned.”
Damn!!
Citing seven-figure amounts that were allegedly billed out and supposedly unaccounted for among campaign finance documents, White ominously added:
“If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, more than likely it’s a duck.”
White was originally hired by Milo and Kanye back in May after the failed campaign’s former treasurer resigned. And almost immediately after coming on board, White believed something to be allegedly amiss with the books.
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Per a prior Politico report, White accused Yiannopoulos of allegedly “violating campaign finance laws” by submitting “falsified invoices” through which the controversial provocateur billed the campaign.
Describing the campaign itself as a “headless horseman” in this new Radar report, White said he has already been in contact with the Federal Election Commission, and added:
“From inception this was like a plane without wings. The unfortunate things, we’re trying to wrap this up and we just keep finding more and more landmines. And we believe that many of the issues not only could have criminal elements, at this point we suspect, but we are still in the process of doing our work.”
Talk about mixing metaphors…
For a specific example, White sent Radar an invoiced filed by Yiannopoulos way back on December 1, 2020, that billed the campaign $116,000 for work. The only description of the work done was “Consultancy — 2020 campaign wrap up.”
Fein warned that the vague description was itself very unsettling:
“Wow! $116,000. He’s as valuable as Babe Ruth in his zenith when he hit 60 home runs in one season. I mean, really. The problem arises here because there is no way for us to verify the legitimacy of the expenditures because there is no work product.”
White and Fein also have taken issue with Ye’s cost-per-vote total. Back in 2020, the Hurricane rapper’s name appeared on ballots in a dozen states, and he received about 60,000 votes during the election. But compared to the costs his campaign was billed to actually get those votes — about $7.5 million in total for “ballot access,” per the report — the Chicago-born star ended up spending approximately $243 per vote when averaged out.
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For White and Fein, that cost-per-vote total is highly concerning as far as the allegations of possible fraudulent or deceitful over billing is concerned.
Fein, who wanted the outlet to clearly delineate that he represents the campaign committee and not Ye or his staffers, explained the trouble with that:
“If you take the expenditures of [Donald] Trump and [Joe] Biden it would be like $25 or $26 per vote. So, Kanye paid ten times more per vote. I’m not saying there is anything conclusive but wow! There is a lot of inflated billing here. Or doing stuff that they really didn’t do.”
But wait — there’s more!
Hours after that Radar Online report went up on Friday of last week, somebody allegedly logged into the campaign’s registered docs filed on the FEC’s website and quietly removed White as treasurer for the presidential committee!! And in response, White and Fein officially filed a complaint with both the FBI and the FEC!
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That newly-filed complaint accuses Ye’s lawyer Bruce Marks and his team of allegedly obstructing “their internal investigation into campaign finance fraud” and altering the named treasurer on the past campaign in order to push White out and prevent further investigation into this shocking claims.
Speaking again to Radar Online for a second report that was published on Monday, White said:
“They are changing [the FEC treasurer] because they are now the subject of a federal probe, so they are all scurrying away with the life preservers. There is no way of covering it up. It was already in the news. We’ve already notified the FBI about the obstruction of justice — and they are furthering the obstruction of justice. It is completely illegal what they are doing.”
Not holding back AT ALL!
As for Marks’ side of the story, he claims Fein and White went to the media with those initial allegations — which Marks claims are false — after they billed Kanye for their services and the rapper supposedly refused to pay that bill upon being displeased by their work.
Marks said:
“Ye categorically denies that he violated federal election law. Period! It is irresponsible for Mr. White or Mr. Fein to make those allegations. I would note these allegations were made to the media after Ye refused to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars that they requested. Period.”
Marks then added that a newly-installed treasurer — and not White — will investigate any fraud claims anyways to be sure everything is being done above board:
“We are going to investigate those allegations, most of which we think are false and to the extent there is any merit in them we will resolve them with the FEC.”
Damn!!
Sounds like quite the back-and-forth brewing.
Reactions, Perezcious readers??
[Image via MEGA/WENN]