Fact check: How European firms indirectly invest millions in US elections

Pressure groups, known as PACs, with European ties are pouring money into US electoral campaigns.

Transcript

00:00How European firms are investing in elections in the U.S.

00:09Record-breaking sums of money are being spent to swing the results of elections in the U.S.

00:15And European companies are making small contributions,

00:19despite them being technically barred from funding American election campaigns.

00:24How? Well, these European companies use their subsidiaries in the U.S.

00:29to set up political action committees, known as PACs.

00:33These PACs collect contributions from their American employees

00:37that are then used to fund electoral campaigns.

00:40We analyzed data provided by U.S. non-profit OpenSecrets

00:45and found that EU firms have used PACs to invest around 3.3 million dollars

00:51in democratic campaigns, which is around 3 million euros,

00:55and 4.4 million dollars in Republican campaigns during this electoral cycle.

01:02That figure rises to 6.3 million dollars for Democrats

01:06and 8 million dollars for Republicans

01:09when we count the donations of other European companies

01:12headquartered in the U.K., Switzerland and Norway.

01:15So, which companies are investing?

01:19143 firms headquartered in 13 European countries

01:24have raised money through PACs during this electoral cycle.

01:27Some of the biggest investments came from Swiss investment bank UBS,

01:31Germany's T-Mobile and British defense company BAE Systems.

01:36It is worth noting that these European investments are minute

01:40compared to the full war chest of elections in the U.S.

01:44and that the funds are usually targeted at congressional candidates

01:48rather than presidential nominees.