Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has issued subpoenas to the liberal dark money giant Arabella Advisors and its multibillion-dollar network of nonprofits that bankroll several of Maine’s progressive organizations and causes, according to a report from the Washington Free Beacon.
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Issued on Sept. 22, the subpoenas target records from Arabella’s New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and the North Fund, and seek to uncover whether the nonprofit network has run afoul of charity tax laws and whether Arabella is obtaining illegal profits from its various funds.
The subpoenas also seek records related to New Venture Fund’s control of the 501(c)4 nonprofit Secure Democracy, which in 2020 and 2021 pushed state legislatures in over 20 states to expand mail-in balloting and funded ad campaigns against Republican candidates, according to the Free Beacon.
The Free Beacon reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had to be persuaded to grant the New Venture Fund, Arabella’s largest pass-through agency, its charity status in 2006 amid concerns that the fund was paying management fees to Arabella.
Spokesmen at the New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty fund have denied any wrongdoing and told the Free Beacon that they would cooperate with the Schwalb’s probe.
An spokesperson from Arabella Advisors told the Beacon that the firm is “confident in the systems we have in place to ensure our business conforms with legal and regulatory requirements.”
The shadowy D.C.-based consulting firm has deep ties to left-wing political initiatives in Maine.
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From 2018 to 2021, the Maine People’s Alliance and its Maine People’s Resource Center received about $6.4 million from Arabella funds.
Hansjorg Wyss, the Swiss foreign national who has helped fund the recent launch of the left-wing news blog Maine Morning Star, has put $208 million into the Arabella-controlled Sixteen Thirty Fund.
In 2020 alone, the Sixteen Thirty Fund directed over $2 million to primarily left-wing organizations in Maine.
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The National Trust for Local News, which recently acquired several of Maine’s largest newspapers, including the Portland Press Herald, is funded by organizations with ties to Arabella’s dark money operation, as well as by George Soros’ “Open Society Foundations” and Pierre Omidyar’s “Democracy Fund.”
The Democratic D.C. attorney general also launched an investigation over this past summer into the network of nonprofits funded by conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, a move which Leo’s attorney described to Fox News Digital in September as “politically driven.”
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Schwalb, who previously worked at the Venable law firm that has performed work for entities in Arabella’s network, was recently accused by the Wall Street Journal editorial board of “stretching the law into a political weapon” in his investigation into Leo’s nonprofits.
