Nonprofit Aid for Cain Camp Reportedly Sparks Legal Concerns
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The work of a nonprofit organization in Wisconsin has raised legal questions after it reportedly helped pay for travel and other expenses in the early days of the Herman Cain campaign.
According to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the now-defunct group, Prosperity USA, was run by top Cain campaign aides Mark Block and Linda Hansen, the candidate's chief and deputy chief of staff.
Records posted online by the newspaper show the group was owed more than $40,000 from the campaign as of early 2011 -- for iPads, as well as travel to Iowa, Las Vegas and other locations. It's not clear whether the debts were paid off.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Election experts told the newspaper that the transactions could run afoul of the tax code since a tax-exempt nonprofit is not supposed to fund campaign expenses under federal law.
Cain, the Republican presidential candidate who has recently charged to the front of the pack, said he would not comment about whether he would revise his campaign finance reports as a result.
"I'm not aware of this report so my staff did not have time to go through it," Cain told Fox News. "We are going to look at it and see if there's any validity ... but at this point I didn't even know about this report until I saw it on your show."