Crazy money: Questions arise over Stark 360 payments to company led by PAC chairman
The libertarian super PAC that received over $100,000 in funding from Lawrence Lessig’s Mayday PAC has reported transferring $20,000 to a company headed by its chairman, leading one former lawmaker to question the legality of the action.
DailyKos diarist DocDawg first reported the transfer, which was documented in a FEC filing by Stark 360 PAC. On September 5, Stark made two separate $10,000 payments to ARD Ventures, a company led by Stark chairman Aaron Day. Stark made the independent expenditures on behalf of Marilinda Garcia for Congress and U.S. Senate candidate Jim Rubens for “GOTV activities.”
“[C]razy money going everywhere,” tweeted former GOP state Rep. Jon Richardson (R-Allenstown) when he read reports of the payments, “how is the 20K legal?”
ARD Ventures describes itself as a technology-focused venture capital firm that has “founded, advised, and invested in ground breaking seed and early stage companies” since 1995.
The ARD Ventures website, which has been offline since this story broke, identifies Day as the company’s managing partner and founder. The company’s advisory board includes Matt Philips, who is also on the Stark 360 board of directors, District 18 state Senate nominee Rep. George Lambert (R-Litchfield) and GOP gubernatorial candidate Andrew Hemingway.
ARD Ventures was also in the news recently when Sheriden Brown, a one-time aide to former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s office accusing Hemingway of willfully concealing a campaign donation from Day. Hemingway reported a June 6, 2014 contribution of $2500 from ARD Ventures but did not include Day’s name in the report. The Hemingway campaign blamed the omission on a software glitch.
Brown’s complaint noted, “No entity or trade name of ‘ARD Ventures’ is filed with the New Hampshire Department of State Corporations Division.” Our search of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Corporate Database indicates ARD Ventures LLC was registered as a Domestic Limited Liability Company (LLC) in Massachusetts on August 29, 2008.
In the filing, Day was identified as the company’s resident agent and only manager. On April 19, 2011, ARD Ventures was formally dissolved by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.