As the presidential election approaches in 2024, questions have been raised about the legitimacy of one particular donation.
In October 2022, a company called PassionForest LLC made a $500,000 contribution to SOS America PAC – a super PAC backing Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s presidential candidacy.
The Washington D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that this obscure online flower-bouquet company was used as a straw donor to illegally conceal the true source of donations to this super PAC.
PassionForest LLC is an 11 month old company that had an Amazon storefront listing artificial flowers for sale at the time of its contribution to SOS America PAC.
Currently only two out of twenty one products are listed as available on Amazon and it appears that their artificial flower business has largely ceased activity since then.
It seems highly improbable that such a small business operation could have generated enough profit to make such an enormous donation within just eleven months of existence and it appears that their flower selling endeavor shuttered shortly after their contribution was made.
This raises suspicions about who or what may be behind these suspicious contributions.
The Campaign Legal Center claims that it is highly unlikely that PassionForest garnered sufficient funds from selling artificial flowers over such a short period of time to make such an extensive political contribution and they allege violations of Federal Election Campaign Act as result of this contribution by advocating for relief on behalf these alleged violations.
Additionally, there are suspicions surrounding foreign influence due to trademark applications being filed four days prior to PassionForest being registered in Delaware in November 2021 from an address in Tianhe District, Guangzhou located in China.
This further raises suspicion around who may be behind these transactions if they are indeed illegal contributions from foreign sources attempting to influence US elections at play here.
Neither SOS America nor Suarez is named as respondent in the complaint but both sides have expressed opinions on the matter with SOS America claiming “it will be seen for what it is” – nothing more than “a political attack”.
The Campaign Legal Center maintains their stance regarding violations saying when someone uses entities like Passion Forest LLC “to make a major political contribution to a super PAC while hiding their identity from voters, it’s a serious violation of the laws meant to ensure transparency and prevent corruption in our elections”.
Meanwhile there has been no response from either Suarez’s campaign or Passion Forest LLC so far regarding these allegations despite New Times reaching out for comment on case.
