Sam E. Antar

NEW INVESTIGATION: Hochul Refunded Donors. Her Party Reported Matching Gifts and Sent Her $16.5 Million. Did the Money Make a Round Trip? Her campaign had to give money back to donors. Then those donors gave the same money to her party. Same names. Same amounts. Usually the same day. Then the party gave Hochul $16.5 million. Follow the money. New York caps what a donor can give a candidate for governor at $9,000 per election. Hochul had no primary opponent, so the primary money had to go back. Her campaign reported $4.7 million in refunds. But there’s no limit on what the state Democratic Party can give her. And a donor can give the party up to $138,600 a year. So here’s the path: the campaign refunds you, you give to the party, and the party gives to Hochul. That’s what the records show: 💰 $2.38 million in Hochul refunds matched gifts to the party from the same donors, down to the name, street address, ZIP code and penny. 💰 The party then sent Hochul $16.5 million: 94% of everything it transferred to other campaigns and committees this year. 💰 In 2022, her last race? $0 in direct transfers to her. It gets stranger. 🔎 ONE CHECK NUMBER. DOZENS OF REFUNDS. On July 10, Hochul’s campaign reported 33 refunds, all under ONE check number: 1373. The same day, the party reported gifts from those same donors. Every entry says check No. 1373. Same total to the penny: $141,565.88. Was that one check from the campaign straight to the party, booked as refunds on one side and donor gifts on the other? 🔎 SAME LIST. SAME ORDER. On July 7, the campaign reported 47 refunds under one check number. Three days later, the party reported 47 wires from the same donors, for the same amounts, in the SAME ORDER. Who made the list? 🔎 SAME TOTAL. RECORDED TWICE? On Oct. 19, the party booked $372,519.98 as coming from Hochul’s campaign. It also booked the exact same $372,519.98 as gifts from 55 donors. Hochul’s books show no payment to the party. 🔎 THE DONORS’ OWN WORDS. One PAC called its refund “redirected to NYSDC.” Another described its party gift as a “Redirection of funds from returned Friends of Hochul Contribution.” 🔎 THE CAMPAIGN’S OWN WORDS. The campaign told New York Focus it contacted refunded donors, asked them to support Democrats “up and down the ballot,” and gave those who agreed a form directing their “reimbursed funds” to the party. So the redirects started with the campaign. Now look at where the party’s money went. The party’s direct transfers and contributions this year to every other New York Democratic candidate and committee: about $128,000. To Hochul: $16.5 million. That’s not up and down the ballot. That’s a piggy bank. And the cash tells the same story. On July 12, the party had $15.9 million, enough to cover everything else it spent through Oct. 16 four times over. The only reason it needed new money: the $16.5 million for Hochul. Each transaction can look innocent on its own. Put them together and you see the substance. I ran the same tests on Hochul’s Republican opponent Bruce Blakeman, Attorney General Letitia James and her Republican opponent Saritha Komatireddy. None showed this pattern. Only Hochul. The filings can’t show which dollars came back to Hochul. Bank records, the donor forms and campaign-party communications can. So release them. If money a campaign has to give back can flow into the party that funds the campaign, what does the limit actually limit? New York Focus first reported on Oct. 15 that refunded donors were giving matching amounts to the party. My investigation took that analysis substantially further, using official NYS Board of Elections filings covering transactions through Oct. 19. Full investigation, charts and sources: link in reply 👇