Bloomberg
His eyes are icy, his lips curl into a snarl.
Below the portrait is a warning: “Foreign Influence in U.S. Elections.”
What follows is a short dossier on the mysterious figure in the photo a “radical” Swiss billionaire with a “dark money ATM” and a secret plan for the US, the text says.
This is Hansjörg Wyss, the man American conservatives see as the new George Soros, the businessman turned philanthropist and villain of the right.
The eightpage report was prepared by Americans for Public Trust (APT), a group affiliated with Leonard Leo, an influential conservative.
And it also shows how Republicans are trying to portray Wyss as the left's next hypnologist.
As the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaches, troubling questions are emerging about the possibility of further election interference.
US intelligence agencies have warned that Russia is again using spies, social networks and state media to undermine democratic elections around the world.
But the Conservatives' campaign against Wyss offers a glimpse into something more familiar: like “dark money.” [dinheiro obscuro, em tradução livre] difficult to understand is used by both the right and the left in today's polarized USA.
On one side are operators like Leo, who have pushed American courts to the right for decades and are now raising millions for groups that oppose abortion rights, climate change initiatives and “woke” companies and schools. [que apoiam causas identitárias, por exemplo].
On the other side are donor influencers like Wyss, a longtime supporter of environmental and health issues.
Wyss, 88, has few known ties to Soros other than a similar environmental agenda. But his wealth has been circulating in the US liberal ecosystem for years, even as Democrats denounce dark money in American politics that allows politically active groups to protect the identities of their donors.
For the right, his political views, wealth and foreign origins inevitably lead to comparisons with Soros. Soros, a Jew and Holocaust survivor, was born in Hungary. Attacks against him are often viewed as antiSemitic.
“The best form of defense is attack,” Caroline Fredrickson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, a New York think tank, said of the conservative push.
Republican strategists like Leo wanted to keep themselves out of the spotlight and shine a spotlight on wealthy liberals like Wyss, he said. Fredrickson has worked for organizations promoted by Wyss, including the liberal think tank Demos.
Wyss and Leo declined to be interviewed for this story. When Leo came under scrutiny last May for his ties to conservative Supreme Court justices, he told the New York Times: “It is long past time for the conservative movement to join the ranks of George Soros, Hansjörg Wyss, Arabella Advisors and other philanthropists of the left. “We fight side by side to defend our Constitution and its ideals.”
APT paid more than $480,000 to CRC Advisors, Leo's consulting firm, last year, according to tax filings.
According to the affidavits, she receives almost all of her money from DonorsTrust, a conservative fund that has received hundreds of millions of dollars from groups linked to Leo.
No one disputes that Wyss, a Swiss citizen who lives in Wilson, Wyoming, donated a lot of money in the United States. He certainly has a lot of money to give away.
Wyss, founder of medical device maker Synthes and coowner of Chelsea, has an estimated fortune of more than $10 billion, $3 billion more than Soros, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Wyss sold Synthes to Johnson & Johnson in 2012 for $19.7 billion.
Wyss' Washingtonbased philanthropic foundation, the Wyss Foundation, has donated more than $807 million in the U.S. since 2016, mostly to environmental causes, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of tax filings.
During the same period, the Berger Action Fund, the foundation's advocacy and lobbying arm, donated more than $343 million to liberal groups, including those fighting Republican gerrymandering efforts and funding PACs. [political action committee, os comitês de ação política] Democrats.
Both Wyss groups say they prevent donations from being used directly to influence U.S. political campaigns or to benefit specific candidates.
Federal law prohibits foreign nationals from making contributions or donations directly or indirectly in connection with federal, state, or local elections or advertising for political candidates in the United States.
At the same time, Wyss occupies a central position in concentric circles of influence.
He is a board member of the Center for American Progress, a think tank with close ties to the Democratic establishment.
He revealed that he had donated more than $208 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a leftwing clearinghouse that does not disclose its backers.
Sixteen Thirty said in a statement that it did not use any money from Wyss for campaign purposes.
The Fund for a Better Future, a leftleaning funding group, said it “carefully manages and monitors” its funds to ensure Wyss’ money is not used for electoral purposes.
Marneé Banks, spokeswoman for Wyss' two nonprofits, said both “prohibit the use of donations to support or oppose candidates or political parties or to otherwise engage in election activities.”
Even before Soros, 93, announced last year that he was stepping away from his political network, conservatives were looking for a wouldbe villain to replace him.
Another conservative group, the Capital Research Center, called Wyss “the new George Soros” in 2022.
Americans for Public Trust filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 2021, alleging that Wyss' groups violated U.S. campaign finance regulations that prohibit donations from foreign nationals.
The FEC investigated and found no evidence of wrongdoing as of 2022, although the agency's general counsel criticized the groups for failing to provide evidence of the “restrictive donation agreements.”
That same year, the FEC charged Wyss with making $119,000 in direct political contributions over a period of approximately 16 years, violating federal law. The Commission refused to take action because the statute of limitations had expired.
None of the Wyss groups have been accused by federal authorities of abusing their status as taxexempt nonprofits.
Banks, the spokeswoman for Wyss' groups, said “dark money interests” spread misinformation about Wyss and disparaged his philanthropic efforts in areas such as conservation and health.
The nonprofits are in full compliance with U.S. law, she said.
Wyss' comments did not stop conservative groups from attacking him.
“Wyss has repeatedly made sweeping claims without any evidence, and now he is attacking the only public report disclosing his political activities,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the APT. “Wyss has openly bragged about being able to operate undetected and is upset after being exposed.”
Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center, says the claim that Wyss has no influence on U.S. policy is “inherently ridiculous.”
However, the APT has no evidence that Wyss has exceeded any limit values. Walter said he was frustrated that the billionaire had not provided evidence that he did not wield influence.
“You just have to take their word for it,” Walter said. “If there really are restrictions or protections in place, that should be easy to prove.”
Republicans on Capitol Hill are also attacking Wyss. Several House committees have announced that they will investigate the Swiss billionaire and his influence.
The House Ways and Means Committee is considering whether the law should prevent foreigners from forming taxexempt interest groups.
An election reform bill cosponsored by 127 House Republicans would ban all taxexempt companies from spending foreign money in U.S. elections. Such proposals have little chance of passing in the Democraticcontrolled Senate.
“The only people who should influence the results of America’s elections are Americans,” said Rep. Jason Smith, Republican of Missouri, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and an ally of former President Donald Trump, who led the politically problematic investigation has criticized Russia's interference in the elections.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, who has studied money in politics, says conservatives had to demonize Soros for years before turning him into a bogeyman of the far right.
Today, Republicans are “testing” Wyss and others to see who can become their next Soros.
“The replacement will not happen overnight,” said Ziegler.