Bloomberg Quotes Trevor Potter: Payday Lender Political Donors Hidden in Corporate Names
03.22.2012
Bloomberg
Excerpt taken from article.
Of all the names disclosed as donors to Restore Our Future, a political action committee supporting Mitt Romney, some stand out for how little they reveal.
RTTTA LLC of Provo, Utah, is one of four corporations created by auto-title and payday lenders who are subject to financial regulations in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law that Romney has vowed to repeal.
The other companies -- REBS Inc. of Las Vegas, Select Management Resources LLC of Alpharetta, Georgia, and Katsam LLC of Seattle -- were listed in Restore Our Future's Feb. 20 and March 20 campaign disclosure reports without revealing their founders' business interests. The four firms contributed $235,000 during the two months after President Barack Obama made the recess appointment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, which oversees the payday lenders, Federal Election Commission reports show. Select Management, which offers car title loans, spent $600,000 in 2010 to lobby on the Dodd-Frank legislation and consumer issues, Senate reports show.
"If that source of funding is hidden, voters are unable to judge who is giving to a candidate and what the candidate is agreeing to in return," said former FEC Chairman Trevor Potter, who is an advocate for limits on and disclosure of campaign donations.
To read the full article, click here.
Of all the names disclosed as donors to Restore Our Future, a political action committee supporting Mitt Romney, some stand out for how little they reveal.
RTTTA LLC of Provo, Utah, is one of four corporations created by auto-title and payday lenders who are subject to financial regulations in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law that Romney has vowed to repeal.
The other companies -- REBS Inc. of Las Vegas, Select Management Resources LLC of Alpharetta, Georgia, and Katsam LLC of Seattle -- were listed in Restore Our Future's Feb. 20 and March 20 campaign disclosure reports without revealing their founders' business interests. The four firms contributed $235,000 during the two months after President Barack Obama made the recess appointment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, which oversees the payday lenders, Federal Election Commission reports show. Select Management, which offers car title loans, spent $600,000 in 2010 to lobby on the Dodd-Frank legislation and consumer issues, Senate reports show.
"If that source of funding is hidden, voters are unable to judge who is giving to a candidate and what the candidate is agreeing to in return," said former FEC Chairman Trevor Potter, who is an advocate for limits on and disclosure of campaign donations.
To read the full article, click here.
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