Man pleads guilty to faking a super PAC, “Americans for Progressive Action”

Pennsylvania resident Christopher Richardson pleaded guilty on Thursday to having fabricated the political action committee and its donors, the Department of Justice said. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June to as many as 30 years in federal prison.

How did he do this? The DOJ said Richardson filed the paperwork to create a super PAC, Americans for Progressive Action, with the Federal Election Commission in March 2020. The Justice Department said he filed a false quarterly report with the FEC and a false expenditure report, showing that AFPA had raised $4.8 million and then spent roughly $1.5 million. He then filed another report saying AFPA had refunded the non-existent $4.8 million supposedly raised by the fictitious super PAC. He also used the fabricated name of a non-existent donor to apply for a credit card and make hundreds of payments.

Is this sort of thing common? In August 2023, the Justice Department indicted two men for lying to donors—allegedly representing a political action committee or a direct-services organization. OpenSecrets.org, which bills itself as a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog, last year found 86 fraudulent political action committees during the 2022 federal election cycle.

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno’s report in The Stew about former Republican Congressman George Santos’s expulsion from Congress over fraud accusations.