Corporations Fined $10K for Illegal Donations to AG Healey and Boston Mayor Walsh

Maura-Healey-BridgeMassachusetts corporations make $10,000 payment to resolve campaign finance issue

Corporations owned by two Allston-based businessmen have made a $10,000 civil forfeiture payment to the state’s general fund to resolve a complaint regarding the true source of campaign contributions, according to a disposition agreement between the businessmen and OCPF.

Alex Matov and Adrian Shapiro are the principal officers and/or managing partners in several businesses, including Hancock Q. Plaza, LLC; Nova Suites, LLC; 5460 Lexington Business Center, LLC; Partner’s Properties, LLC; 1505 Commonwealth Avenue Realty Trust; and CV Consulting, LLC.

According to OCPF’s review, Matov and Shapiro provided funds from their business entities to an employee, who deposited the money shortly after she made contributions to three Massachusetts candidates in 2015 and 2016. In total, $3,000 was contributed by the employee.

The campaign finance law prohibits a person or entity from disguising the true source of a contribution, and prohibits contributions from corporations, including LLCs.

OCPF has no reason to believe that the candidates who received the contributions, Mayor Thomas Koch of Quincy ($1,500), Mayor Martin Walsh of Boston ($500), and Attorney General Maura Healey ($1,000), knew that the funds contributed by the employee were made with money provided by another source.

The candidates have voluntarily disgorged, or will disgorge, the prohibited funds by Dec. 31, 2016.  Disgorgements are made according to the “residual funds clause” in Section 18 of the campaign finance law – to the state, a municipality, charity or scholarship fund.

The agreement, available here, was signed by OCPF Director Michael J. Sullivan, Matov and Shapiro.

A disposition agreement is a voluntary written agreement entered into between the subject of a review and OCPF, in which the subject agrees to take certain specific actions.