Legal experts have urged opening an immediate probe into Future Forward, President Joe Biden's favorite super PAC, after an investigation by The Washington Free Beacon uncovered a $12 million gap in its financial disclosures, the website reported on Monday.
Future Forward stated in 2021 that it had received only $3.4 million in cash from its affiliated nonprofit group Future Forward USA Action. But the affiliated group reported in its 2021 tax return that it gave $15.3 million to the super PAC that year.
The missing $12 million is one of several errors in the group’s finances, inaccuracies that experts say are serious enough to warrant a federal investigation.
As a nonprofit, Future Forward USA Action is not required to publicly disclose its donors.
Typically, when a super PAC discloses contributions from a dark money group, the figures will match what the dark money group reports in its IRS tax returns, according to the Free Beacon.
"The apparent numerous and blatant discrepancies in the recent filings by both the nonprofit and the super PAC are beyond troubling," said Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust watchdog group.
Nonprofit attorney Jason Torchinsky emphasized that an apparent failure to report millions in contributions "would be a serious matter that the Federal Election Commission would investigate" and could result in substantial fines for the group.
Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, agreed that "there must be an independent audit of both groups for these egregious discrepancies and an investigation and possible enforcement action by both the IRS and the FEC."
Future Forward and Future Forward USA Action did not answer detailed questions on the gaps in their respective financial disclosures.
Future Forward, which is led by former Obama campaign officials, has raised almost $400 million in the last five years to run ads backing Biden and Democrats in battleground states.
Republican election lawyer Charlie Spies added that "Future Forward USA Action admitted to making over $3 million in earmarked political contributions, where they apparently obscured the true super PAC donor's identity by routing the money through the nonprofit."
He told the Free Beacon that "the U.S. DOJ has sent people to prison for this sort of illegal activity, and the FEC has imposed major fines on conservative organizations accused of less blatant earmarking."