Omar Rivero, co-founder of Occupy Democrats, claimed it took strenuous effort and resources to produce memes in response to questions about the organization’s finances.
The Occupy Democrats Election Fund PAC spent $577,892 on fundraising consulting in 2021-2022, accounting for about half of its expenditures, and $0 on federal candidates, according to Open Secrets. Nearly half of those consulting funds ($250,000) went to Blue Deal LLC, which is run by Rivero and his brother, Rafael Rivero, who is also a co-founder of Occupy Democrats.
Numerous Twitter users accused Omar Rivero of embezzling funds.
“Relax, we’re passing hundreds of thousands of dollars around to ourselves to make memes” lol
— Damin Toell (@damintoell) September 26, 2022
Occupy Democrats is a left-wing activist group known for its popular Facebook and Twitter posts, which follow a rigid formula and usually close with a call to action in all caps such as “RT IF YOU AGREE!” or “RT IF YOU SUPPORT!” The organization is a hybrid PAC which can contribute to political candidates.
BREAKING: Shocking footage leaks showing Donald Trump’s minion Roger Stone saying “fuck voting, let’s get right to the violence” ahead of the 2020 election — clearly he got his deadly wish on Jan. 6th. RT IF YOU THINK THAT HE MUST HE LOCKED UP FOR GOOD!
— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) September 27, 2022
“If you understood the time and effort that goes into making viral memes — and the impact that they have — you might respect our work more,” Omar Rivero said in a now-deleted tweet. (RELATED: ‘I’ll Never Forgive Myself’: Women Share Abortion Regrets On TikTok)
Omar Rivero also claimed the PAC was a super PAC and as such couldn’t make direct donations to candidates; Occupy Democrats is actually a hybrid PAC which can make some donations to candidates, according to Axios.
He has also disputed the report in since-deleted tweets shared by Hamish Mitchell, the man who initially brought the issue to light.
“Fake news lol,” Rivero reportedly said in one deleted tweet.
The guy who runs Occupy Democrats is apparently unfamiliar with his own group’s legal structure. It’s a hybrid pac, which, unlike a super pac, maintains a segregated bank account from which it can contribute directly to candidates https://t.co/j4S1pRzhTs
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) September 27, 2022
“The Occupy Democrats Election Fund has amended its FEC disclosures to more accurately describe payments made to content creators and digital amplifiers after its previous compliance officer erroneously reported the disbursements as ‘fundraising consulting,'” a spokesperson for Occupy Democrats told the Daily Caller News Foundation, sharing a link to the updated disclosures. “The payments in question funded the Rebel Alliance, a consortium of high-powered liberal Facebook pages that spun out of the Biden campaign collaboration and funded key meme projects for the Georgia Senate runoffs, the Gavin Newsom recall election, and the Virginia gubernatorial race.”
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