CREW FILES FEC COMPLAINT AGAINST BACARDI PAC FOR SECRET CONTRIBUTIONS

18 Mar 2004 // Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that the Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. PAC violated federal campaign laws by failing to report campaign contributions.

The Bacardi PAC failed to file either a Year End Report for 2003, or a Quarterly Report for the first quarter of 2004. CREW's investigation revealed, however, that in 2003, the Bacardi PAC made unreported campaign contributions to the Democracy Believers Political Action Committee, a leadership PAC jointly sponsored by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), and the Grassley Committee, Inc., the principal campaign committee of Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA).

CREW also discovered that during the first quarter of 2004, the Bacardi PAC made an unreported contribution of $2,500 to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's leadership PAC, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), as well as unreported contributions to the Bill Nelson for U.S. Senate Campaign Committee, the principal campaign committee of Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL); and Friends of Connie Mack, the principal campaign committee of Connie Mack IV, a candidate for the Republican nomination in the race to represent the Fourteenth Congressional District of Florida.

Last October, CREW requested an IRS audit of ARMPAC after it failed to disclose that Bacardi provided free liquor and merchandise to members of Congress and lobbyists who attended an ARMPAC fundraiser at a golf resort in Puerto Rico in February 2002. Federal law requires that all contributions must be reported on IRS form 8872s, which PACs must file quarterly.