Over the years, Barry Zekelman’s business empire and family – including his wife and brother – have contributed at least $ 2.6 million to politicians and political campaigns in the United States.
Mr. Zekelman’s political engagement, based in Windsor, Ont., and his U.S. enterprises have been revealed to a Globe and Mail analysis of US government campaign funding databases and contract documents.
US regulators penalized Canadian billionaire Barry Zekelman’s business for making unlawful donations to Trump’s Super PAC.
Foreign nationals without US citizenship or a green card are barred from making or engaging in political contributions under US law.
Wheatland Tube, a Zekelman-controlled corporation, was fined $ 1.75 million by the US Federal Election Commission in April for its role in the Super PAC America First Action. Because Mr. Zekelman helped coordinate the donations, the FEC determined that they were improper.
At least $58 million in contracts were awarded to a business controlled by a Canadian steel mogul linked in illegal donations to a Donald Trump campaign organisation to help build the former president’s border wall with Mexico.
According to federal government records, Atlas Tube, a Zekelman-owned company, was awarded two contracts to supply steel for the Arizona border wall. The first contract was for $ 52,563,747 and was signed on September 23, 2019. The second was worth $ 5,902,948 as of January 14, 2020.
Companies having government contracts are forbidden from making federal political contributions under US campaign finance legislation. Atlas is not known to have given money to federal candidates or Super PACs. Other Zekelman enterprises, notably Wheatland Tube, as well as Mr. Zekelman’s relatives, have made donations.
Mr. Ghosh, who is now director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center, the watchdog group that successfully challenged Wheatland’s Trump donations said, “If the parent company has the same managers and directors as the company with the contract, I think there are cases where the FEC would look beyond the company structure and the legal fiction that it is a separate entity would not be enough to allow them to make political contributions. ”
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