California’s Fair Political Practices Commission brought a 31 thousand dollar fine against Governor Gavin Newsom last week for failing to report behest payments on time.
Behested payments are when an elected official asks someone to donate to a charity on their behalf. The payments are completely legal, as long as the official asking for the payments reports them within 30 days.
The FPPC found Newsom failed to report 36 behested payments on time during 2024 and 2025. Most were for The California Fire Foundation, a nonprofit that was supporting recovery efforts after the LA fires.
Newsom and his staff solicited payments from a number of corporations, including Uber Eats, BlackRock, Lockheed Martin, and Anthem Blue Cross. Most were between 200 and 500 thousand dollars to the nonprofit.
The FPPC says the Governor did report the payments before the commission’s enforcement division contacted his team.
According to Newsom’s office, it was delayed in filing its paperwork with the FPPC because the Governor was focused on emergency response following the fires.