Conduit contribution
Definition
A contribution passed through an intermediary to reach a specific candidate. Properly disclosed, this is a legal "earmarked" contribution, with both the original donor and the conduit reported. When the conduit's role is hidden to disguise the true donor, it becomes an illegal straw-donor scheme and a felony.
Why it matters
The legal and illegal versions look identical on the surface: money moving through a middleman to a candidate. The dividing line is disclosure. Legitimate conduits, like PACs that forward earmarked checks, must report the original contributor, while illegal conduits conceal that person specifically to evade contribution limits or source bans.
Seen in the wild
The FEC's own guidance uses the example of a PAC that receives a contribution earmarked for a specific candidate and must report both the giver and the forwarding PAC.1 By contrast, prosecutors charged Lev Parnas for using a shell company as an undisclosed conduit to pass $325,000 from a Russian national into a pro-Trump super PAC, concealing rather than disclosing the true source.