The dark-money nonprofit central to Florida’s 2020 “ghost” candidate scandal, as well as several related organizations, may have violated federal campaign finance laws in order to conceal political spending, according to a newly filed complaint by a legal watchdog group.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a D.C.-based nonprofit, filed the Federal Election Commission complaint Wednesday, naming Grow United, Inc., its founder Richard Alexander, and a collection of other nonprofits and political action committees.

In a statement, CREW President Noah Bookbinder said the FEC “must act and investigate whether these dark money groups broke the law and hold them accountable.”

“When political contributions are made through dark money groups, the public is denied their right to know who is influencing their elections,” he said. “Campaign finance laws are meant to ensure transparency in elections so that voters can make an informed decision based on all the facts.”

The complaint alleges violations under the Federal Election Campaign Act, which prohibits contributions made “in the name of another,” typically by funneling money intended to support a cause or candidate through a network of entities to conceal its true origins.

CREW’s complaint was based largely on reporting by the Orlando Sentinel and other Florida news outlets. The Sentinel’s reports showed Grow United was part of a network of dark money nonprofits active in Florida politics with ties to a political consulting firm in Alabama.

The firm, Matrix LLC, was involved at all levels of Florida politics, from influencing local mayoral and county commission elections to combating attempts to reshape the state constitution and even gaining control of a Tallahassee-based political news website.

Much of Matrix’s behind-the-scenes work advanced the interests of Florida Power & Light. The utility has denied any wrongdoing in its political activities.

The Alabama firm’s activities drew scrutiny after the Sentinel linked its operatives to Grow United, which in 2020 funded mailers promoting independent candidates in three competitive Florida Senate races.

The candidates didn’t campaign but the ads, orchestrated by GOP operatives, billed them as progressives, apparently in an effort to siphon votes away from the Democrats in each race, helping Republicans — including Sen. Jason Brodeur of Sanford — win all three seats.

A cache of Matrix records sent to the Sentinel late last year revealed the FPL executives were working closely with Matrix during the 2020 elections. The spoiler candidate scheme, fueled by Grow United money, helped oust one of the utility’s biggest critics from the Legislature.

FPL has said it had no involvement in the plan.

The records showed that the consultants who controlled Grow United billed FPL for more than $3 million days before they began moving money through the entity, and the utility had donated more than $10 million in recent years to other related dark-money nonprofits.

Among the documents was a November 2019 memo, written by Matrix’s CEO, which laid out a proposal for how FPL money could be filtered through a network of companies and nonprofits. Those would then contribute to politicians in Florida and around the country.

The memo, which then-Matrix CEO Jeff Pitts sent to an email pseudonym used by FPL CEO Eric Silagy, is cited in the CREW complaint. An FPL spokesperson said last year the company had no evidence the proposed spending plan was used in 2020.

But the CREW complaint alleges that a version of the plan was employed by Pitts and his colleagues, using their various nonprofits to contribute to super PACs which then spent the money on political activities.

A spokesperson for Pitts, who departed Matrix in December 2020 and formed a new Florida-based firm, Canopy Partners, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Matrix’s founder, Joe Perkins, has said that he was unaware of his ex-CEO’s activities in Florida.

CREW’s complaint seeks to uncover the original source of the money that passed through the various Matrix-linked nonprofits. It also asks the FEC to impose sanctions in response to any violations discovered.

“Voters need to know who is funding efforts to impact elections, especially as dark money groups try to evade accountability and mislead voters by hiding their donors,” Bookbinder said. “It’s time we put an end to dark money groups that obscure the source of their funding in violation of the law in order to secretly influence our elections.”

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