Campaign fund-raising abuses and money laundering in recent U.S. elections Criminal networks in action精品.pdfVIP

Crime, Law Social Change 34: 111–157, 2000. 111 © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Campaign fund-raising abuses and money laundering in recent U.S. elections: Criminal networks in action DONALD R. LIDDICK, JR. University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, Department of Sociology, Faculty Office Building 121, 1150 Mt. Pleasant Road, Greensburg, PA 15601, USA Abstract. This study describes some of the campaign fundraising abuses perpetuated by Republican and Democratic operatives in connection with recent U.S. elections. Efforts to conceal the source of campaign contributions or to evade contribution and spending limits involved a variety of money laundering techniques including the use of shell companies, straw donors, and the funnelling of money through political action committees and non profit tax- exempt organizations. In addition to the brazen sale of political access, some of the more serious infractions involved the infusion of foreign money into the Republican and Democratic National Committees as well as the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign. The author concludes the crimes that were committed are explained best as organized criminality manifested as complex networks of patron-client relationships. Introduction Both Republican and Democratic Party officials and fundraisers systemat- ically violated campaign finance laws in recent U.S. elections. In order to circumvent restrictive contribution and spending limits and to conceal the source of contributions, campaign finance solicitors, contributors, and brokers from both sides of the political aisle engaged in a variety of illegal schemes best described as money laundering. The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the more notorious infractions. I will also argue that the criminality described should be conceptualized as a facet of