PolitiFi Newsletter #7 - Pelosi Acquires Hotels As America Set To Re-Open

Nancy Pelosi Invests In Hotel Aquisition Group; The Nation's Largest Donor-Advised Fund Facilitated Major Dark Money; Ro Khanna's Problematic Investments

The Lead

Nancy Pelosi Invests In Hotel Acquisition As America Re-Opens

New financial disclosures released on Friday show on 07/13/21, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—whose position in government has been vital in crafting and enacting Covid-19 relief legislation—and her investor husband, Paul Pelosi, invested $250,000 to $500,000 in REOF XXII LLC., a real-estate investment vehicle which intends to buy eleven Marriot-branded and nine Hilton-branded hotels in over a dozen states across the country.

REOF XXII is registered to hospitality and restaurant industry mogul, Greg Flynn, whose Flynn Property Group seems to be the parent organization affiliated with the LLC. Last year, it was reported that Nancy and Paul Pelosi held investments in other Flynn-related (and similarly named) LLCs: REOF XXI, in which they invested $250,000 to $500,000 in a San Francisco office building, and more relevantly, REOF XX—through which the couple invested approximately $350,000 for the purpose of buying up five Courtyard Marriot hotels in VA, MD, and TX. Though the couple took a $50,000-$100,000 loss for the pandemic laden year (REOF XX took out a pretty sizeable PPP loan), they are looking to bounce back as America seemingly is on track to re-open heading into 2022.

The filing show the Marriot hotels are located in the following cities—Rogers, AR; Phoenix, AZ; Lakeland, FL; Albany, GA; Andover, MA; Fayetteville, NC; Greenville, SC; Johnson City, TN; Beaumont, TX; Richmond, VA; and Vancouver, WA. The Hilton-branded hotels will be in Montgomery, AL (2); Schaumberg, IL; Jackson, TN; Allen, TX (2); Burleson, TX; El-Paso, TX; and Irving, TX. All in all—and including the five hotels they already have stakes in—the Pelosi’s will have stakes ($500,000 to $1,000,000) in two LLCs through which she will have partial ownership of 25 different hotels across the US, eight of which will be in Texas.

The filings also disclosed the couple bought 5,000 shares of Nvidia Corporation worth between $500,000-$1,000,000, as well as purchasing 50 call options worth $250,000-$500,000. They also traded 10,000 shares of Slack in exchange for 776 shares of Salesforce, for which the received a cash payout of $267,900.

Earlier in the week, Speaker Pelosi released her 2020 financial report, which saw her disclose assets valued anywhere between $66 million and $316 million—with notable investments in Google, Amazon, Apple, Salesforce, Crowdstrike, Microsoft, PayPal, Netflix, Roblox, and Alliance Bernstein. According to data formulated by Donald Shaw at Sludge, Pelosi’s net-worth grew over 16% over the course of 2020, to a median average estimation of $190.9 million, making her approximately the sixth wealthiest member of congress.

Major Liberal Dark Money Group Received Anonymous $80 Million Through Fidelity Charitable

Recently released tax forms first reported by PolitiFi show that the nation’s largest donor-advised fund, Fidelity Charitable, facilitated over $80 million in anonymous donations to dark-money juggernaut, New Venture Fund—who acts as the parent group to another major (and politically active) dark money group, Sixteen Thirty Fund. The donation(s) occurred between the dates of 07/01/2019-06/30/2020.

Donor-advised funds allow their clients to remain anonymous by way of their structure: when you donate to a DAF, you get the benefit of the tax write-off right away, though you may wait an undetermined amount of time before you actually direct it to be donated to an actual charity. Like a normal savings account, if you choose to let your money sit, it will slowly accumulate interest. Here’s the sticky part, especially when it comes to dark money: when you do decide to move your funds to a charity, the donation is made in the name of the institution through which your DAF is maintained—in New Venture Fund’s case, Fidelity Charitable—giving the donor an extra layer of confidentiality. The $80 million-plus ranked as the second largest amount given to any organization through Fidelity during the time period, per the documents.

Through New Venture Fund, nonprofit management firm Arabella Advisors allocates tens millions of dollars to be directed to other politically motivated groups—usually using Sixteen Thirty Fund to do so. The latest available tax documents show that New Venture Fund was Sixteen Thirty’s largest 2019 donor by far, to the tune of $33M, roughly 25% of what the group brought in. Sixteen Thirty, whose donors remain anonymous, spent over $60 million in the 2020 election cycle funding pro-Democrat Super PACs such as SMP, Priorities USA, American Bridge, Future Forward, and several others—giving the groups a financial boost in their mission to flood the airwaves with election-influencing ads.

New Venture Fund also got significant funding from Bill Gates’ private foundation in 2020, data reviewed by PolitiFi shows. New Venture Fund received roughly $19.5 million from the Gates Foundation during last year—with $10 million coming some time in November. PolitiFi’s recent breakdown of New Venture Fund’s recent donors, we found that Gates donated approximately $25 million to the network in 2019 (which made them NVF’s second largest identifiable donor for the period)—and flashing forward to present day, has given them over $3 million in 2021, per the Gates Foundation website's grant database.

Fidelity Charitable’s tax documents also show another Arabella Advisors-ran nonprofit rounding out the top ten largest donation-getters, the Hopewell Fund, who received over $38 million via the institution.

Several other prominent political groups received substantial donations through Fidelity. Sierra Club Foundation brought in over $34 million; Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Defense Fund each received over $24 million. Another prominent liberal-leaning dark money organization who benefitted was Tides Foundation, who got over $20 million—their sister group, the Tides Center, received $2.4 million. “Progressive” nonprofit Center For Popular Democracy got more than $11 million—while Priorities USA, Joe Biden’s largest Super PAC in the previous cycle (who spent over $80 million to get him elected) received an even $10 million to their nonprofit arm through Fidelity.

The Bradley Impact Fund, who has previously bankrolled right-wing groups such as Turning Point USA (who themselves got over $600K through Fidelity) and Prager U, received nearly $8 million in anonymous cash—as did liberal think-tank Center For American Progress. Other Progressive groups, such as Indivisible, brought in nearly $5 million, and Make The Road, just over $4 million.

As anonymously funded organizations like Sixteen Thirty Fund become more and more prevalent in politics, the need to put a name on a who funds them becomes more important to keep track of the people anonymously cutting the checks meant to influence our elections and political systems as a whole, whether intentionally or indirectly. Fidelity Charitable doled out over $9 billion in anonymous grants—something lawmakers need to consider as the conversation around campaign finance reform and dark money continues. New Venture Fund’s 2020 tax records will be available later in the year.

Stay tuned to PolitiFi for more information this issue as more information becomes available.

Democrats, Republicans Locked In Close Fundraising Battle After July

New reports filed with the FEC this week show July was a close fundraising battle between Republicans and Democrats, with Dems edging the overall race when their three major fundraising bodies were totaled. Democrats were boosted mostly by President Biden’s still churning fundraising machine, but some institutional donors hopped in a little early by their standards, such as former Google/Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt and George Soros. To a lesser extent, Republicans got some help from Rick Scott’s lucrative victory fund, as well as $332,000 from FedEx CEO Frederick Smith, with another $328,500 coming Texas oil company owner J.C. Walter. From the beginning of the year until now, the DNC has raised barely $2 million more than the RNC, but the GOP congressional bodies (NRCC and NRSC) have outraised their Democratic counterparts by approximately $5 million each.

Here’s where the parties stand as of July 31st:

RNC: $12,946,981 / $97,941,422 YTD7

Top Donors: J.C. Walter III, Chairman of Walter Oil & Gas ($328,500); Craig Estey, Manager of NV Restaurant Services Inc ($182,500); Patricia Estey, Pere Antoine Inc ($146,000); Kathleen Mezzalingua, Retired ($125,000); Barbara Gaby, Self-Employed ($125,000)

NRCC: $7,028,354 / $86,303,345 YTD

Top Donors: Take Back The House 2022 ($377,768); Scalise For Congress ($300,000); Graves For Congress ($194,000); Frederick Smith, CEO of FedEx ($113,500); Guy For Congress ($100,000)

NRSC: $7,467,415 / $58,677,528 YTD

Top Donors: Rick Scott Victory Fund ($902,157); Frederick Smith, CEO of FedEx ($219,000); James Reibel, Retired ($100,000); Bruce Taylor, Taylor Fresh Foods ($100,000)

DNC: $13,090,380 / $100,170,284 YTD

Top Donors: Biden Victory Fund ($4,000,000); Kieu Hoang, President of RAAS Nutritionals ($350,000); Eric Schmidt, former Chairman of Google ($328,500); George Soros, CEO Soros Fund Management ($250,000); Avram Glaxer, Self-Employed Investor ($150,000); Thomas Campion, Chairman of Zumiez ($103,250); Seth Klarman, CEO of The Baupost Group ($100,000); Carmen Chang, Investor at New Enterprise Associates ($100,000)

DCCC: $11,250,256 / $81,931,611 YTD

Top Donors: Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund ($587,500); Ewa Abraham, Homemaker ($255,500); Ray Cockrum, Owner of Knight Blanc LLC ($220,200); James Simons, President of Renaissance Technologies ($219,000); S. Daniel Abraham, Chairman of Energy Foods of America ($219,000); Marilyn Simons, President of The Simons Foundation ($218,500); House Senate Victory Fund ($117,000); Jeffries Victory Fund ($101,000); Jeffries For Congress ($100,000); Schiff For Congress ($100,000); Ted Lieu For Congress ($100,000); Americpac ($100,000)

DSCC: $6,473,054 / $53,060,006 YTD

Top Donors: House Senate Victory Fund ($346,500); DSCC Chair Victory Fund ($255,500)

Khanna’s Finances Reflect Near Total Divestment From Defense/Oil—But Some Problematic Investments Remain

Recent financial disclosures filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives reviewed by PolitiFi show Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), and his wife, Rita Ajaru, completed a near total divestment from the numerous defense and oil companies that have traditionally been mainstays in the couple’s numerous trust accounts. However, those trusts still maintain several investments in companies that still may draw scrutiny from Progressives—and some of those holdings are in companies in complete opposition to Justice Democrats’ much public support for Medicare For All legislation.

Seeing as how Silicon Valley, CA is the district Khanna represents, it’s not surprising to see companies like Apple ($500K-$1M), Amazon ($315K-$650K), Microsoft ($315K-$665K), Oracle ($50K-$100K) Facebook ($165K-$400K), Alphabet/Google ($150K-$350K), Paypal ($50K-$100K), Salesforce ($15K-$50K), AMD, Nvidia, Square, and Twitter filling many gaps in the numerous trusts he and his wife maintain. Khanna also holds a $265K-$550K stake in cybersecurity firm FireEye. While tech investing may be the norm for Congressmen/women, at the very least, it draws questions as it pertains to how an elected official may handle being in charge of regulating companies whose success adds to the Representative’s wealth.

There were several holdings that seemingly would clash with many Progressives’ standpoint on the subject of Medicare For All. As I reported last year, during February 2020 (before lockdowns swept the nation), Rita Ajaru’s trust accounts bought up large amounts of Pfizer and PPE manufacturer DuPont, which are still present to the tune of $265K-$550K each. Other pharmaceutical companies that appeared in the disclosure were Merck ($51K-$115K), Johnson & Johnson ($50K-$100K), Bristol Meyers Squibb ($50K-$100K), Regeneron, and Alexion. Along the lines of insurance reform, nobody gets in the way of that more than big insurance companies—and a few of them are present still in Khanna’s disclosure: mainly UnitedHealth, which has a listed value of ($100K-$250K), and Aetna parent CVS ($15K-$50K), as well as Aflac, Anthem, and Cardinal Health.

As mentioned, due to reporting done by Sludge, ourselves, and others, the activist group CodePink was able to get Khanna’s wife to publicly divest her hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of defense and oil stocks—the proceeds of which she seemingly reinvested in municipal bonds. However, a couple investments do still remain from both sectors. Defense-wise, the trusts still show small holdings in Leidos and Honeywell, both of whom get an abundance of DoD contracts annually. While big oil companies specifically are no longer featured among the numerous portfolios we examined, one major investor in such companies did stick out—Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway ($265K-$550K), who recently bought up $4 billion worth of Chevron stock.

“Thank you for being factual and updating this info” Rep. Khanna said via Twitter in response to our initial report. “Much respect.”