Some Obama donations made with prepaid credit cards

By: JournalNow Staff | THE WASHINGTON POST
Published: October 29, 2008

WASHINGTON

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity, campaign officials confirmed.

Faced with a big influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

The Obama organization said its review has ensured that the campaign has refunded improper contributions, and added that Federal Election Commission rules do not require front-end screening.

In recent weeks, questionable contributions have created headaches for Obama's accounting team as it has tried to explain why campaign-finance filings have included itemized donations from individuals using fake names, such as Es Esh or Doodad Pro. Those disclosures prompted conservative bloggers to further test Obama's finance vetting by giving money using prepaid cards that can be bought at a drugstore and cannot be traced to a donor.

The problem with such cards, campaign-finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors, or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions.

"They have opened the floodgates to all this money coming in," said Sean Cairncross, the chief counsel to the Republican National Committee. "I think they've made the determination that whatever money they have to refund on the back end doesn't outweigh the benefit of taking all this money up front."

The Obama campaign has shattered presidential fundraising records, in part by capitalizing on the ease of online giving. Of the $150 million Obama raised in September, nearly $100 million came in over the Internet.

Sen. John McCain's campaign has also had questionable donations slip through. But R. Rebecca Donatelli, who handles online contributions for the McCain operation and the RNC, said that security measures have been in place for McCain's fundraising efforts throughout the campaign. She said she was "flabbergasted" to learn that the Obama campaign accepts prepaid cards.