The campaign committee, “Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao,” also known as OUST, is under scrutiny for possibly violating fundraising laws.
In May, OUST was given a subpoena by the city’s Public Ethics Commission, claiming that the group was trying to bypass disclosing the sources and amounts of their campaign donations. After refusing to cooperate with the subpoena, OUST is now facing a lawsuit from the Ethics Commission.
According to the Commission’s Chief of Enforcement, Simon Russell, OUST solicited donations without reporting earmarked contributions.
He explained why this is a problem in an email to KALW:
“If the campaign knows they’re receiving earmarked funds, they have a legal obligation to report who the true source is — not just the middleman,” wrote Russell.
OUST is being accused of receiving money for their campaign from groups, like Foundational Oakland Unites, to support the recall measure. But this hides the original donors to these middleman groups, and should be reported as earmarked contributions, according to the Commission.
The recall campaign and their attorney, Todd Pickles, haven’t yet publicly commented on the lawsuit.
In May, Pickles wrote letters rejecting the subpoenas. According to the attorney, the subpoenas were asking for records on too short of a turnaround time – eight days.
He also claimed that the investigation violated the privacy rights of the campaign organizers and that the Commission’s investigation is politically motivated.