Palmer Luckey, Founder, Oculus VR, on the Centre Stage during Day 1 of the 2015 Web Summit in the RDS, Dublin, Ireland.

Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus, has financially backed a partisan group devoted to circulating Internet memes besmirching Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the Daily Beast reported Thursday.

The group, called Nimble America, describes itself as a "social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit" in support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the report said.

Luckey, who sold his virtual reality company Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, said that despite being listed as NimbleAmerica's vice president on its website, he was just the group's money man, adding that the group "sounded like a real jolly good time," the report said.

In an auto-response to an email sent by CNBC outside office hours, Nimble America said it takes positions on a variety of public policy matters and that it creates ads to promote "common sense conservatism." It said it didn't consider its activities to be political as defined under U.S. tax code.

Responding on September 26 to CNBC's inquiry, Nimble America did not address its sources of funding, but said via email, "As an advocacy organization, Nimble America may also support or oppose political candidates that share or oppose the ideals of Nimble America."



In a Facebook post on September 24, Luckey apologized for actions that may negatively impact perceptions of Oculus and its partners.

He confirmed that he had donated $10,000 to Nimble America, but denied that he was a founder or employee of the group and added that he didn't plan further donations to the group.

Facebook didn't immediately return CNBC's emailed request for comment, sent outside office hours, on whether Luckey was an employee of the company.

The full Daily Beast report can be read here.



Clarification: This article has been updated to include statements from Nimble America and Palmer Luckey.