Louis Dejoy Campaign Finance Complaint

MEMORANDUM To: Common Cause North Carolina From: Bob Hall, Voting Matters Inc. Date: June 17, 2021 Re: Louis DeJoy Campaign Finance Complaint This memo is accompanied by a two-page summary of campaign contributions and a 12-page spreadsheet listing more than 350 donations that are the basis of my findings. Recent news reports indicate the FBI is conducting an investigation into possible illegal campaign contributions that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy provided to federal political committees. David Young, a former executive at DeJoy’s High Point-based New Breed Logistics, told the Greensboro News & Record and other reporters that DeJoy gave company bonuses as repayments to employees who made campaign contributions to politicians selected by DeJoy. Based on the Washington Post’s confirmation of that allegation with other New Breed employees in a story published on September 6, 2020, Common Cause North Carolina filed a complaint with North Carolina’s State Board of Elections and asked it to conduct an investigation of possible illegal contributions by DeJoy (and his company) to non-federal NC candidates, PACs and/or political committees regulated by the State Board and state law. The State Board has not closed its review of the complaint, but it is disappointing to read that Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has decided there is no need for an investigation. An April 12, 2021, Associated Press article quotes Ms. Freeman saying, “Our review of what we believe to be pertinent, state campaign finance reports, did not disclose sufficient information to warrant a criminal investigation.” She said she made her decision around the end of 2020 and that it “does not cut off any potential federal investigation” of federal campaign contributions. Freeman’s office is responsible for prosecuting state-level campaign violations. Her decision, based only on the “information” that campaign finance reports “disclose,” appears superficial and misguided. It was apparently not based on interviews with New Breed employees and David Young, who had access to payroll records as DeJoy’s longtime director of human resources. Worse, her decision publicly undermines the value of the State Board of Elections conducting its own investigation since that agency relies on her office to pursue possible criminal violations. Furthermore, as someone who has researched campaign reports for many years, I believe a careful review of contributions by DeJoy and New Breed employees to state candidates demonstrates a compelling need for state agencies, not just the FBI, to conduct a comprehensive criminal investigation of felony campaign finance violations involving hundreds of thousands of dollars to North Carolina campaigns. I am providing this memo with the results of my research as documentation that may be useful to reaffirm the importance and urgency of the complaint filed by Common Cause North Carolina in September 2020. In a nutshell, the pattern of campaign contributions from Louis DeJoy and New Breed employees to the gubernatorial campaigns of Pat McCrory follows the same pattern of other company owners who have been found guilty in North Carolina of funneling money through their 1 employees to state candidates – for example, rest home chain owner Stephen Pierce of Kernersville and packaging company owner Rusty Carter of Wilmington, as well as video-poker operator Robert Huckabee who left the state before he could be prosecuted. In all these cases, (1) company employees or associates who had never or rarely made a state campaign contribution of over $100 suddenly made a $1,000 or larger contribution to a candidate; (2) they made the contribution on or about the same day as other employees who were also new donors; (3) they made the contribution to a candidate who also received the maximum amount from the company owner; and (4) the company owner funneled additional money to the candidate through family members, most likely using company money. Here’s how that scenario played out with Louis DeJoy, his family and 60 of his employees donating $300,000 to Pat McCrory’s campaigns, mostly in clusters of large donations, while those employees gave under $8,000 to other NC candidates or committees during 30 years. DeJoy moved to Greensboro in 1997 as New Breed expanded, and state campaign finance records show that the local employees he hired over the next decade, as well as those who transferred in from elsewhere, had virtually no interest in donating to North Carolina politicians. Only one future employee (Richard Wimmer, a CPA with Ernst & Young in 1997) had given a reportable contribution ($100 or more) to a North Carolina state candidate, PAC or party committee in the decade before 1998; Wimmer gave a total of just $425 from 1989 to 1998. From 1998 through 2007, only Wimmer and 5 other New Breed employees gave a reportable contribution in state politics – a combined total of just $1,660 over 10 years. Meanwhile, DeJoy and his wife Aldona Wos, who raised over $1 million for federal candidates Elizabeth Dole and George W. Bush in the decade after moving to North Carolina, gave a relatively modest amount to state candidates or party committees. From 1997 through 2007, records show DeJoy and Wos contributed $24,845 (about $2,000 a year) to state-regulated politics, with half of that going to local and state Republican Party committees ($13,650). See the spreadsheet for summary data from state campaign finance records. Things began to change in 2008. DeJoy and Wos each gave the maximum of $8,000 to Pat McCrory’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2008, and DeJoy donated $34,000 to the NC Republican Party in June 2008 and another $13,500 in October, for a total of $47,500 to the NCGOP. After DeJoy and his wife gave their maximum to McCrory, 7 employees donated a combined $3,000 to the McCrory’s campaign, all on the same day – October 23, 2008. For all 7, it was their first donation to a NC candidate. Contributions from New Breed employees dramatically increased when DeJoy began raising funds for Pat McCrory’s 2012 gubernatorial bid. Wos became a co-chair of the campaign. Suddenly, dozens of employees who had given little or nothing to NC politics began making $1,000 and larger donations to the McCrory campaign. For the 2012 campaign, 54 New Breed employees (and 3 of their spouses) gave McCrory a total of $143,130. For 46 of the 54 employees, it was their first reportable contribution to a North Carolina candidate. A pattern also began in which maximum contributions were given by (or in the name of) three of DeJoy family members to Pat McCrory’s campaigns, on or about the same day, starting in 2 2011 and continuing until mid-November 2015, with each family member’s employer identified as New Breed. This pattern raises concerns about whether donations were made in the names of DeJoy family members and whether corporate funds were used to make them. A total of $39,300 went to McCrory’s 2012 and 2016 campaigns from Michael DeJoy, Frances DeJoy of Greensboro and Frances A. DeJoy of Cold Spring Harbor, NY – $13,100 from each family member in three payments of $4,000 in 2011, $4,000 in 2012 and $5,100 in 2015. In addition, Michael DeJoy and Frances DeJoy of Greensboro are listed as donating the maximum $12,600 to the federal Tillis Victory Committee on September 29, 2014, the same day that Louis DeJoy contributed the same amount. For just the 2012 McCrory campaign, Louis DeJoy, Aldona Wos and the 3 family members donated $37,717. Combined with the $143,130 from New Breed employees, the DeJoy network directly donated a total of $180,847 to Pat McCrory’s 2012 campaign, and the new governor showed his appreciation by appointing Aldona Wos secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. Almost two thirds of this $180,847 went to the 2012 McCrory campaign in clusters of donations around two dates described below – November 28, 2011 and September 28, 2012. David Young, the whistleblower quoted in news accounts about DeJoy’s reimbursement scheme, gave $2,000 to McCrory on each of those days. He is in a good position to report why so many New Breed employees, like him, who had previously given next to nothing to NC candidates would act almost in unison to make large donations to Pat McCrory. On November 28, 2011, several months before the 2012 primary, 20 New Breed employees and 2 of their wives donated $37,750 to Pat McCrory. Five of the 20 employees had given to McCrory on October 23, 2008. For 13 of the 20 employees, including David Young, it was their first reportable donation to any state candidate. In the days immediately before and soon after November 28, 2011, another 17 New Breed employees, plus 3 DeJoy family members, donated $31,400 to Pat McCrory’s campaign. It was the first time the 3 family members show up on a North Carolina disclosure report; each gave $4,000 (the maximum) to McCrory for the primary. For 15 of the 17 employees, it was their first reportable North Carolina contribution; the other 2 employees had donated to McCrory on October 23, 2008. On September 27 and 28, 2012, after the primary and before the general election, 45 New Breed employees, 2 of their wives, Louis DeJoy and 3 other DeJoy family members donated $88,500 to Pat McCrory. Most of these donors had contributed to McCrory before 2012, but 15 of the 45 employees were new donors who gave between $500 and $2,000 and who had never before made a reportable North Carolina campaign donation.

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