A truck bearing the words “Fire Gay” drives through Harvard Square. On December 10, Harvard University President Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony caused a stir on campus. 2023.
Pat Greenhouse | The Boston Globe | Getty Images
A far-right activist group that conducts doxing of college students participating in pro-Palestinian protests has revealed that it is funded by nonprofits backed by top Republican political donors and wealthy business leaders. tax refund CNBC show reviews.
The organization Media Accuracy publicly disclosed in its federal tax returns Donor list In total, they donated nearly $1.9 million to the tax-exempt nonprofit between May 2022 and last April.
Contributors are listed in tax refund Among them is billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, who Accuracy in Media said gave $1 million to the organization.
family foundation shipping supply giant Richard white This was also noted on the tax return, which showed a $10,000 donation from the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation. The Milstein Family Foundation, which is run by real estate executive and Republican donor Adam Milstein, donated another $10,000, the IRS reported.
Accuracy in Media said it received $15,000 from the Coors Brewing Family’s charitable foundation, according to its tax filings.this Adolf Coors Foundation The foundation is chaired by former Molson Coors executive Peter H. Coors, according to the foundation’s most recent tax records.
Yas, white, Milstein and Coors Both have donated regularly to Republican campaigns over the past decade.
But Yas is different from the others. The co-founder of options trading giant Susquehanna International Group and his wife Janine are the top political donors to the 2024 election.So far Yas and his wife have contributed $70 million Dozens of Republican candidates and committees, according to independents Campaign Finance Database Open secrets.
Accuracy in Media blamed its accountants when CNBC notified the organization that its 2022 federal tax returns had been filed and contained a list of major donors and donation amounts. This data is generally used only by the IRS.
The accuracy of the media did not question the authenticity of the nonprofit tax returns. It also did not challenge the accuracy of 25 of the 26 donations listed.
But AIM President Adam Guillette told CNBC that Yass was mistakenly identified and that he did not donate to the organization.
Yass’s name and his business address appear on two separate pages of AIM’s 2022 tax return. Yass’s donation was said to be $1 million, the largest donation listed in the filing that year.
“Jeff Yass has never been an AIM donor. I think our accounting firm made a very, very big mistake,” Guillette told CNBC.
Accounting firm JBS & Company said the information on the tax returns was provided by client Accuracy in Media. It also said the returns contained “wrong donors.” But it didn’t say who the donor was or who said it was incorrect.
“We submitted a Form 990 with client authorization and the wrong donor was identified. We apologize on behalf of our client and the donors to the organization that were mistakenly identified as non-donors. We have no further comment,” Phil Headley, a CPA at JBS wrote in an email to CNBC.
A spokesman for Yass did not respond to CNBC’s request to clarify whether he donated. Representatives for Milstein, Uihlein and the Adolf Coors Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.
The Harvard courtyard next to the statue of John Harvard is filled with tents and signs at the pro-Palestinian encampment at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 5, 2024.
Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images
CNBC can independently confirm the accuracy of AIM’s listed contributions Ulein and Coors Foundations are verified by cross-checking with the foundation’s public donation records. However, Yas’s entry reportedly comes from an individual, not a foundation.
Non-profit organizations Groups are not required to publicly release the names of their donors, but they must report the names of donors who donate $5,000 or more to the IRS. Typically, tax-exempt groups redact the names of these major donors on the public version of their tax returns. But in this case, AIM did not.
Instead, the organization filed a 2022 tax return with the IRS earlier this year that still included the names of major donors.The forms were later posted online frank’non-profit database and Puplicaof non-profit explorers.
While tax-exempt groups rarely disclose donor names and donation levels, this isn’t the first time a nonprofit has inadvertently released a tax return containing this information.
The conservative Independent Women’s Forum included the names and amounts of major donors in its 2021 tax returns filed with the South Carolina Secretary of State’s Office. IWF file display Amazon $400,000 has been donated to the organization.
The secretary of state’s office defended the handling of its records, telling CNBC that the IWF “failed to redact” its donor names before filing the returns. The pages were removed shortly after CNBC alerted the office that IWF’s donor details were online.
AIM’s offensive strategy
The only employee whose latest tax return was reported in the media accuracy report was Guillette.Former vice president of far-right camera scam group Veritas, among many others AIM’s tactics Similar to the person employed truth project.
For months, Media Accuracy has launched a doxxing campaign Activity Opposed college students and teachers the group believed were either too pro-Palestinian or not pro-Israeli enough. Gaza has been besieged by Israeli forces since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
In the days after the attacks, media accuracy drove mobile billboard Around Harvard University, Name and photo of college student His group allegedly signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas attacks. “Harvard’s leading anti-Semite” was written above the student’s name and photo.
A student protester stands in front of a statue of John Harvard, Harvard’s first major donor, draped in a Palestinian flag at a student encampment at Harvard University protesting the Gaza War in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday.
Ben Curtis | Associated Press
Target advertising billboard The campaigning didn’t stop at Harvard. The group said on its website that it has run similar billboard campaigns on trucks at universities including the City University of New York, Berkeley Law, the University of Southern California, Columbia University and Stanford University, placing the names and photos of college students. Stick it on the truck.
The organization has also launched websites aimed at students and universities.
Last fall, media accuracy drove its truck to the homes of three college presidents: Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn State’s Liz Magill, and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth. The truck was plastered with photos of the women and accusations of anti-Semitism.
Gay and Magill later resigned amid backlash for their testimony during congressional hearings on anti-Semitism on college campuses. Both administrators defended their responses to the campus protests.
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