Big donor to campaign to end open primaries charged in big Medicaid fraud case

A big political donor whose name is prominently displayed on every political ad promoting the campaign to end open primaries and ban ranked choice voting has been charged in connection with a $619,000 Medicaid fraud case.

Here is the court complaint against Kyle Bates, 48, and others.

Scott Kendall is right to call this a big scandal in the making and to ask why the $25,000 that Bates donated has not been refunded by the group that wants to bring back closed primaries.

Bates is such a major financial player in the “Repeal Now” campaign to end ranked choice voting that his name is on the ads as a top three donor.

Kyle and his wife Molly were the owners of three entities that billed Medicaid—Heritage Assisted Living Home LLC, Heritage Home LLC and Alaska Life Group Homes LLC.

The state charges they made fraudulent Medicaid claims of $618,961.99, that they did not have enough employees for the services they were billing and they did not have sufficient records and other documents to justify expenses.

The case began with a tip from the IRS in 2021.

Meanwhile, the Alaska Public Offices Commission is holding an important special meeting Thursday at 10 a.m. that bears on the so-called Aurora Action Network, which is the main donor bankrolling the Repeal Now campaign.

Here is information on how to attend remotely or listen to the meeting.

Kendall is a major part of Alaskans for Better Elections, which is defending the current law.

Aurora Action Network now claims to be an Anchorage-based organization, headquartered at the home of Bob Griffin, a right-wing political activist and retired Alaska Airlines pilot who was named to the state school board by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and rejected by the Legislature.

The use of Griffin’s address is important because state law requires disclosure of where the donor is from. By using Griffin’s home address, Repeal Now can say the Aurora Action Network is from Anchorage, though it used to say the network was located in Hudson, Wisconsin where the treasurer lives and where the files are kept. The group uses a Minnesota bank.

Billionaire Jeff Yass, who does not live at Griffin’s house but in Pennsylvania, is the major donor to the Aurora Action Network. The richest man in Pennsylvania, he has provided at least $675,000 over 18 months.

The disclaimer using the Anchorage address of Griffin is false, according to a complaint filed with the APOC, by Alaskans for Better Elections. The commission will decide whether to expedite the complaint, which it should.

Griffin is not the treasurer of the Aurora Action Network or an employee. He does not appear to be a donor, the complaint says.

“The sole purpose of using Mr. Griffin’s address appears to be falsely portraying Aurora Action Network as an ‘Alaska’ entity for Repeal Now’s mandatory disclaimers and to deceive voters about the fact that Aurora Action Network and the sources of the vast majority of the funds contributed to Repeal Now are from outside Alaska,” the complaint says.

Derek Ross, a Costa Mesa, California attorney representing the Aurora Action Network, says that Griffin’s house can be called the “principal place of business” because Alaska is the principal place of business for the Aurora Action Network. And Griffin’s house is in Alaska.

Ross also claims that the “nerve center” of the network is in Alaska. The money trail goes back to the Keystone State, but Repeal Now wants to promote the fiction that this is a home-grown effort.

Ross says the APOC has no right to take issue with the Aurora Action Network address in Anchorage.

“APOC is not well-positioned to declare AAN’s (Aurora Action Network) FEC-registered mailing address false or fictitious simply because the Complaint disagrees with it. Doing so would require APOC Staff to substitute its own judgment for that of the FEC (Federal Election Commission) as to where a federally registered committee may receive mail—a determination that is not APOC’s to make,” Ross wrote.

The Aurora Action Network changed its address with the FEC, but only after the Alaska complaint was filed about the Anchorage address being a fake. But the network continues to list a Wisconsin address on various disclosure documents filed with the APOC.

This should not be about whether the Aurora Action Network is getting mail at Griffin’s house when everything else about the network is based Outside. One of the great parts of Alaska law is the requirement to disclose where the top contributors are really from. The money is not coming from Griffin’s house.

Here is all the background information on the meeting.

This is a good column on the situation from Ruth Hall, published in the ADN.

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