This May Be the Biggest Political Donation Ever The story by Kenneth P. Vogel and Shane Goldmacher reports that Barre Seid—a mogul who made his fortune in electronics manufacturing—donated $1.6 billion to a new conservative nonprofit called the Marble Freedom Trust. The latter group is run by Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo, a prominent figure in conservative causes, including abortion rights. He's also "been deeply involved in the nomination and confirmation of every Republican-appointed Supreme Court justice since Clarence Thomas," per the left-leaning Talking Points Memo. Instead of cash, Seid donated all of his shares in his Tripp Lite company to Marble Freedom Trust before the firm sold for $1.6 billion. Both Seid and the group may be able to avoid paying taxes on the sum as a result.
Federalist society trying to reshape the country to their model of what they think we should look like
Leonard Leo with 1.6b to spend. Not good for democracy. These RW “charitable trusts” like this one, the Koch Trust, The Olin Foundation and others push for unfettered capitalism where industry can do what it wants without oversight or regulations. The Koch Companies are one of the largest if not the largest polluter in the country and have been guilty of outright dumping of toxic material into waterways and lying about it. The not so altruistic Koch Charitable Trust successfully lobbies government for less regulation, establishes “schools” of economics and law at our universities (including FSU and others) where they churn out like minded graduates that will be of benefit to them. Of course the money they put into their own charitable trust that is used to influence government is tax deductible so we tax payers help them fund it. They are also big players in think tanks - starting the Cato Institute and were/are big funders of The Heritage Foundation. Needless to say the Citizens United decision has allowed them (through other “charitable trusts and foundations” where money is not traceable and donors are not revealed) to buy politicians wholesale. This is a whole lot more of the same and it ain’t good. These guys play a very long game and it’s not democracy. Informative reads on the subject: Dark Money by Jane Meyer and Democracy in Chains by I forget who.
If I buy shares for $100, then I donate shares worth $100 to Fred, I pay no capital gains on the shares. Afterwards, the shares increase in value to $1000, and Fred pays capital gains on $900 when the value increases, but only when he sells the shares. There are two issues to solve here before this is a legal / ethical issue:: 1) How did I know the value would increase. (did I have advance knowledge of the generous buyout?) 2) Taxes are still paid, but not by me. Had I sold the shares / paid the taxes before donating, the effect is the same. Granted, if Fred took a loss this year on the rest of his portfolio, he may not have to pay after all.
