Yesterday, the FBI raided a political consulting firm in Annapolis, Maryland, news which came as a surprise to most — but perhaps not its clients. The Washington Post reports that the raid could be tied to lawsuits and complaints alleging ethics violations and potentially criminal acts, including a high-profile Virginia gubernatorial race four years ago:

On Thursday, six FBI agents showed up at the third-floor office of Strategic Campaign Group to gather computer files and documents related to the firm’s direct mail and fundraising practices, [GOP strategist Kelly] Rogers said. Lindsay Ram, a spokeswoman for the FBI field office in Washington, confirmed that agents were “conducting law enforcement activity in Annapolis, off Main Street.”

Rogers said agents appeared interested in work the firm did during Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s 2013 gubernatorial race. Cuccinelli (R) sued the Strategic Campaign Group and the Conservative Strike Force in 2014, alleging they raised almost $2.2 million to support his campaign but steered little of that money to him. …

The Conservative Strike Force agreed to pay Cuccinelli $85,000 to settle the lawsuit, and Strategic Campaign Group said it would turn over donor information.

The Conservative Strike Force has paid Strategic Campaign Group at least $493,000 for services since 2011, according to federal records. Strategic Campaign Group also received at least $188,000 in that time period from the Conservative Majority Fund, another political action committee listing Mackenzie as its treasurer. Mackenzie did not return a voice mail seeking comment.

Needless to say, the FBI does not conduct investigations into civil suits, unless the court action reveals potential criminal conduct. The issue at hand is the percentage of funds raised that get spent directly on campaigns. Forming as political action committees allows consultants to shield how they spend their money to a greater degree than in traditional incorporations, non-profit or otherwise. The Post notes that the Federal Election Commission has tried to adapt to fix the problem, but has not had much luck so far. That may be because of the political bottlenecks at the FEC, or more likely, just because of the complexity of the campaign-finance regulation they already have to enforce.

Cuccinelli certainly didn’t have any problems with the raid. He settled with Strategic Campaign Group in 2015 in a lawsuit he brought alleging that the consultancy spent little of the $2.2 million it raised for him on the 2013 gubernatorial campaign in his support. In an interview with Fox’s Washington affiliate, Cuccinelli says “scam-PACs are real,” and that they’re all over the place:

A raid does not an indictment make, and an indictment does not a conviction make, for that matter, so it’s too early to tell whether SCG qualifies as a “scam-PAC” — although one can certainly understand why Cuccinelli holds that opinion. One way to perhaps assist in dealing with such operators would be to have a requirement to demonstrate the percentage of proceeds that a firm spends directly back on the client’s campaign outside of the salaries of their consultants. A better approach, however, would be to have less complex campaign finance laws that create less of a need for these kinds of PACs in the first place. We can’t regulate fraud completely out of the system, or deregulate it out completely either, but we can incentivize donations directly to candidates and parties rather than through PAC fundraising.

Perhaps there’s an even better way to solve the problem. People who are inclined to donate to politicians should donate directly to them, and hang up when anyone else calls.