Bombshell: Obama.com Owned by Bundler in Shanghai with Business Ties to Chinese

[apples]

Bombshell: Obama.com Owned by Bundler in Shanghai with Business Ties to Chinese Government

In an explosive report set to send shockwaves through official Washington, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) released a 108-page GAI investigation into the threat of foreign and fraudulent Internet campaign donations in U.S. federal elections (visit campaignfundingrisks.com to download the full report).

Breitbart News obtained an advance copy of the bombshell report which reveals that the Obama.com website is not owned by the president’s campaign but rather by Obama bundler Robert Roche, a U.S. citizen living in Shanghai, China. Roche is the chairman of a Chinese infomercial company, Acorn International, with ties to state-controlled banks that allow it to “gain revenue through credit card transactions with Chinese banks.”

There’s more.

The unusual Obama.com website redirects traffic directly to a donation page on the Obama campaign’s official website, my.barackobama.com, which does not require donors tob enter their credit card security code (known as the CVV code), thereby increasing the likelihood of foreign or fraudulent donations. The website is managed by a small web development firm, Wicked Global, in Maine. One of Wicked Global’s employees, Greg Dorr, lists on his LinkedIn page his additional employment with Peace Action Maine and Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights. According to the GAI report, 68 percent of all Internet traffic to Obama.com comes from foreign visitors.

And still more.

In 2011, Mr. Roche obtained one of the most sought-after pieces of real estate in Washington, DC: a seat at the head table for President Obama’s State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao. How Roche—a man whose infomercial company hawks fitness equipment, cell phones, and breast enhancement products—landed a seat alongside

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/08/Obama-com-Owned-by-Bundler-in-China-with-Business-Ties-to-Chinese-Government

Hopefully Mittens will ask the President about this during the debates.

[Stan In FL]

what were these people thinking?  either these idiots are too stupid to be decent crooks, or these are the dumbest smart kids I have ever seen.

[apples]

China's History of Attempted Influence in U.S. Presidential Campaigns

The Chinese government has been active in trying to influence U.S. elections and officials for decades, and a new Government Accountability Institute (GAI) study found possible ties between those connected to Chinese business interests and a mysterious website unaffiliated with the Obama campaign that redirects visitors to the official website.

According to the report's findings, it would be easier for Chinese agents to donate to U.S. politicians by circumventing U.S. election laws because they can now use the Internet instead of the middlemen they attempted to use in decades past.

Consider the mysterious website "Obama.com," which redirects visitors to President Barack Obama's official campaign website. The Obama campaign, known for obsessing about Obama's brand and logo, does not own "Obama.com."

In the last week of September 2008, Obama.com was registered to a “Roche, Robert.”

Even more curious is the fact Roche received an invitation to the White House for a 2011 State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao and sat at the head table with Obama.

At the State Dinner in 2011, Roche was seated at the head table with Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and then-White House Chief of Staff William Daley.

The only other corporate executives seated at the head table werewere General Electric’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt and Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent.

In 1998, Roche co-founded Acorn International, a company registered in the People’s Republic of China with ties to at least 13 Chinese state-owned banks. GAI found the

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/09/Chinese-Government-Can-More-Easily-Influence-U-S-Elections-Through-Illicit-Online-Contributions

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Obama Camp. Potentially Violated Fed. Laws by Solicitating Foreign Campaign Donations

President Barack Obama’s campaign officials may have violated the Federal Election Campaign Act, which makes it illegal to knowingly solicit donations from foreigners by aggressively sending fundraising e-mails to foreign nationals. The solicitations direct to the campaign’s official donation page that does not implement proper security measures to prevent foreigners from making campaign contributions.

A Government Accountability Institute (GAI) investigation found the website Obama.com, which is not owned by the Obama campaign and has ties to a Shanghai bundler linked to the Obama campaign, redirects to the Obama campaign’s official donation page.  And according to a legal analysis obtained by Breitbart News, the “campaign’s failure” to employ security measures coupled with the “considerable foreign traffic reaching its websites” warrants an investigation as to whether Obama campaign officials violated campaign finance laws.

If found guilty, Obama campaign officials could face up to five years in prison and $25,000 in fines.

According to the legal analysis, federal law is “violated at the moment such solicitations are made, whether or not the person solicited actually follows through by making a contribution" and the regulations make it clear that the law not only forbids the knowing solicitation or receipt of such contributions but makes it a crime to provide “substantial assistance in the solicitation, making, acceptance or receipt of” contributions from foreign nationals.

The legal analysis notes the FEC regulations “make it clear that a campaign official cannot avoid criminal culpability by ignoring facts that would lead a reasonable person to inquire whether foreign nationals are contributing funds to the campaign.”

And there is ample evidence to suggest the Obama campaign ignored facts and evidence that would allow a "reasonable person to inquire" whether foreigners were donating to the campaign.

The GAI report found that “links to Obama designated websites are infused into thousands of foreign blogs and websites in select countries around the world” and when a foreigner clicks on the site, “he or she is asked to subscribe to become an Obama supporter.”

“GAI found an array of appeals and solicitations to foreign residents for contributions to the Obama Presidential campaign,” the report says, citing “evidence of what appears to be an effort to target foreign traffic and drive it to the Obama Campaign website.”

The legal analysis noted “while such solicitations could be explainable if they were received solely by U.S. citizens abroad, they clearly are not.”

“At no point in this subscription process is the foreign resident asked to provide his or her address, nationality or any information proving or disproving his or her citizenship,” the report stated. “Once visitors sign up, they immediately begin receiving solicitations for donations from the official Obama campaign. Numerous foreign nationals report receiving letters and emails from the campaign imploring them to donate and thanking them for their support.”

These foreigners then “often repost these on their blog sites and encourage friends to click on the donate link or get their names on the email list,” making the donation links go viral in foreign countries and in foreign social networking sites.

According to the legal analysis, "the GAI report presents evidence that the Obama campaign is aware of the security benefits that come with the CVV feature because the campaign uses it in selling campaign merchandise."

"Because campaigns which fail to install CVV will likely pay more for less security and less information, and a plausible motive for doing so is to procure more revenue, we believe there is a sufficient basis under the law to support further investigation as to the knowing solicitation and acceptance of foreign contributions by these campaigns," the analysis stated. "While there may well be innocent explanations for not installing these cost saving security measures, they are not readily discernable."

The legal analysis also notes the Obama campaign “cannot have escaped” the international

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/08/Obama-Campaign-Potentially-Violated-Federal-Laws-Prohibiting-Solicitation-Of-Foreign-Campaign-Donations

[apples]

Shanghai Calling

China-based donor to pro-Obama Super PAC has Cayman Islands connections
A top Obama campaign bundler living in Shanghai, China, is an international businessman with ties to the Cayman Islands.

Robert W. Roche has lived in China and Japan for the past 27 years, although he maintains a residence in Chicago. He has used his extensive connections to raise money for the Obama campaign, and has pledged to raise $500,000 for the Obama campaign this year, an upgrade from the $100,000-200,000 he agreed to raise four years ago. He donated the maximum $50,000 allowable to Obama’s inauguration fund in 2009.

Roche’s wife, Ritsuko Hattori-Roche, along with Roche’s business partner Don Yang, are the sole stockholders of Bireme Limited, a Cayman Islands-based company.

The Roches and Yang used their business in the Cayman Islands to orchestrate the purchase in 2011 of a majority of the stocks of Acorn International, a Chinese infomercial company that Yang and Mr. Roche cofounded in 1998. Acorn’s board objected to the purchase offer, calling it “inadequate … opportunistic,” and “coercive,” and charged that it would give the Roches and Yang a majority share of the company’s stocks, effectively giving them control of the company.

Acorn International has not returned a request for comment.

Ms. Hattori-Roche is also the grantor of Catalonia Holdings LTD, a company in Jersey, an island off the French Coast.

In addition to his bundling pledges and direct donations to the Obama campaign, Roche also donated $100,000 to Obama’s Super PAC, Priorities USA—including a $50,000 donation made shortly after Obama announced his personal approval of the group. Obama initially opposed Super PACs, which allow unlimited donations, but reversed his opposition in February and allowed his campaign to direct donors to Priorities USA.

The Super PAC became the object of intense controversy this summer after it released an advertisement suggesting that Republican nominee Mitt Romney may have been responsible for the death of a steelworker’s wife from cancer.

On July 11 of this year, Roche hosted a kick-off fundraiser in Shanghai, China, for the Obama Victory Fund at his hotel in downtown Shanghai, URBN. URBN’s website describes it as “a boutique hotel set in the heart of Shanghai’s downtown area.”

Roche has not just donated to Obama, however. Mr. Roche contributed $375,809 to Democratic campaigns and committees between 2007 and 2012, including donations to John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Chris Dodd.

http://freebeacon.com/shanghai-calling/

[apples]

China-Based Fundraiser Linked to Illegal Foreign Donations

A prominent Democratic donor with ties to the Red Chinese government may be implicated in the Obama campaign’s flouting of federal campaign finance law, according to a bombshell investigative report.

The groundbreaking new study, authored by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), highlights the “curious case” of Obama.com, a website previously, and possibly still, owned by Obama campaign bundler and frequent White House visitor Robert W. Roche.

The website—which is not one of the hundreds of different domain names owned by the Obama campaign—is examined at length in the report as a major potential gateway for illegal foreign donations to the campaign.

Visitors to the site, more than two-thirds of which are located outside the United States, are redirected to the Obama campaign’s main donation page at barackobama.com.

The GAI investigation found numerous links to Obama.com on foreign blog sites and forum boards, links that “increase the probability that foreign nationals will try to donate to the Obama campaign.” Furthermore, the GAI discovered that search engine optimization (SEO) techniques were employed at some point in order to generate foreign traffic to Obama.com.

Federal election law prohibits campaigns from knowingly accepting or soliciting donations from foreign nationals.

The GAI report cited Obama.com’s existence and the unusually lax online security measures on the Obama campaign’s donation page as evidence the campaign may be breaking the law. At the very least, these two factors indicated the need for further investigation.

Roche, who has raised nearly $850,000 for Obama since 2007, registered the domain in September 2008. It is unclear if Roche still owns the site, however, as it switched to an anonymous registration in October 2010.

In October 2008, the site began redirecting its mostly foreign visitors to content on my.barackobama.com, the campaign’s social media platform that frequently solicits donation over email. The site employs no safeguards to ensure that potential donors are American citizens.

Following Obama’s victory in November 2008, Obama.com began redirecting visitors to a page selling inauguration merchandise and soliciting donations for the inauguration celebration. Roche personally donated $50,000, the maximum allowable amount.

He has contributed more than $375,000 to Democratic campaigns and committees since 2007,and at least $100,000 to the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA, which notably ran an ad suggesting that Obama’s opponent Mitt Romney was responsible for a Missouri woman’s death from cancer.

At some point in 2012, the webpage began directing visitors to a donation page on the Obama campaign’s website.

The campaign website, meanwhile, is able to monitor traffic and donations coming from Obama.com using a unique tracking number.

The Obama campaign raised more than $500 million online in 2008, the vast majority of which came in amounts less than $200. Federal election law does not require campaigns to collect information about the individual making the donation at such a low level.

Investigation into the campaign’s online fundraising in 2008 uncovered thousands of examples of fraudulent donations from nonexistent people.

Additionally, the Obama campaign does not employ basic verification safeguards to weed out fraudulent online payments, even though doing so would save them millions of dollars in processing fees. As a result, the campaign is extremely susceptible to illegal activity.

Kenneth Sukhia, a Florida attorney retained by GAI to examine the legal implications of the report, argued that the findings raise serious questions about the Obama campaign’s motivations.

“There is reason to suspect that such decisions may be motivated by the

http://freebeacon.com/china-based-fundraiser-linked-to-illegal-foreign-donations/

[Stan In FL]

Obama hasn't sold out to the Chinese.  He sold out to the Russians a long time ago.  You can only be bought and paid for once.

[Stan In FL]

Benzhazi coverup, foreign money, fast and furious, stimulus as payoffs like solyndra, the most corrupt DoJ in history . . . I think we're ready to start referring to "the Obama culture of corruption"

[apples]

Obama Campaign Scrambles to Kill Illegal Online Fundraising Story

Minutes after Newsweek published a story on the threat of illegal foreign and fraudulent online campaign donations late Monday afternoon, the Obama campaign struck back hard with a response smearing one of the article’s authors and offered an anemic defense of its online fundraising operations.

Earlier today, Breitbart News and myriad news agencies reported on a new 108-page investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) which examines the online donation systems of the entire U.S. Congress and the two presidential candidates. The report found that 47.3% of all House and Senate donation websites do not require online donors to enter their credit card security code (officially known as a CVV, or Card Verification Value), which leaves them vulnerable to foreign and fraudulent contributions. 

Governor Mitt Romney’s website requires donors to enter a credit card security code, while President Barack Obama’s does not. The GAI report also revealed that Obama.com is not owned by the president’s campaign but rather by Robert Roche, an American businessman and top Obama fundraiser living in Shanghai, China, whose company has ties to the Chinese government.

Within hours of a Newsweek article on the report’s release, the Obama campaign issued a dismissive response. The Obama campaign’s rapid-fire attack against the report did not mention Robert Roche, Obama.com, the Obama campaign’s failure to require donors to

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/08/Obama-Campaign-Scrambles-To-Kill-Illegal-Online-Fundraising-Story

[apples]

The Illegal-Donor Loophole

Further complicating the issue are websites like Obama.com—which is owned not by the Obama campaign but by Robert Roche, an American businessman and Obama fundraiser who lives in Shanghai. Roche’s China-based media company, Acorn International, runs infomercials on Chinese state television. Obama.com redirects to a specific donation page on BarackObama.com, the official campaign website. Unlike BarackObama.com, Obama.com’s traffic is 68 percent foreign, according to markosweb.com, a traffic-analysis website. According to France-based web analytics site Mustat.com, Obama.com receives over 2,000 visitors every day.

The name Robert W. Roche appears 11 times in the White House visitors log during the Obama administration. Roche also sits on the Obama administration’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, and is a co-chair of Technology for Obama, a fundraising effort. (In an email exchange, Roche declined to discuss his website, or his support for the Obama reelection effort, referring the inquiries to the Obama campaign team. The Obama campaign, in turn, says it has no control over Roche’s website; it also says only 2 percent of the donations associated with Obama.com come from overseas.)

But it isn’t just foreign donations that are a concern. So are fraudulent donations. In the age of digital contributions, fraudsters can deploy so-called robo-donations, computer programs that use false names to spew hundreds of donations a day in small increments, in order to evade reporting requirements. According to an October 2008 Washington Post article, Mary Biskup of Missouri appeared to give more than $170,000 in small donations to the 2008 Obama campaign. Yet Biskup said she never gave any money to the campaign. Some other contributor gave the donations using her name, without her knowledge. (The Obama campaign explained to the Post that it caught the donations and returned them.)

This makes it all the more surprising that the Obama campaign does not use a standard security tool, the card verification value (CVV) system—the three- or four-digit number often imprinted on the back of a credit card, whose purpose is to verify that the person executing the purchase (or, in this case, donation) physically

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/08/the-illegal-donor-loophole.html

I must admit I don't go to the dailybeast well because it is the dailybeast/time.