The inconsistencies don’t end there. In Ocasio-Cortez’ New York City Campaign Finance Board profile, she claimed to have been a “Foreign Affairs & Immigration Liaison” for Ted Kennedy, who died in 2009 when Ocasio-Cortez was 19 years old. This has been described elsewhere as a college internship. She also lists previous occupations as “Microfinance Practitioner and Maternal Health Study— Niger, West Africa” and “Metrics & Social Design — The Purpose Economy; Imperative”, both of which appear to have been undergrad experiences.

The only claim that does check out is Ocasio-Cortez’ work with the National Hispanic Institute. She lists herself as an “Educational Director” on her Financial Disclosure with a 401K but no reported income. Recently, she was named “2017 Person of the Year” by the organization. A feature article on their site suggests she has had a relationship with the organization since high school and that her position is a volunteer one.

All said, Ocasio-Cortez only earned income from her food service positions in 2016 and 2017, totaling around $43,000 and $27,000 respectively.

Is Ocasio-Cortez really from the Bronx?

It’s difficult to confirm more about Ocasio-Cortez’ background since the candidate’s previous twitter account appears to have been deleted, her LinkedIn profile is essentially blank, and web archives for her campaign show a changing story over time. But residency information can be gleaned by fact-checking her current campaign bio against prior statements.

Ocasio-Cortez has claimed to be a “third-generation Bronxite” from a “working class” family. An enormous part of her aggressive rhetoric against incumbent Joe Crowley concerned the 10-term congressman living outside his district. Yet in the profile Ocasio-Cortez used to launch her candidacy, she wrote: “we started our journey in the Bronx, but were forced to leave our neighborhood in search of public schools with more to offer than a 50% dropout rate.” She graduated from the predominately white Yorktown High School located in Yorktown Heights, NY, where the average household income is $141,254 and average household net worth is $1,192,838.

In 2016, Ocasio-Cortez was quoted in a Think Progress article where she was described as a “Westchester County voter.” The article referenced a Reddit post where she wrote of her 2012 post-Hurricane Sandy voting issues: “I was stuck in NYC and voted outside my precinct, and apparently when I signed that affidavit my party affiliation was waived.”

It is also uncertain whether running in the Bronx 14th district was Ocasio-Cortez’ first choice. Her initial Statement of Candidacy submitted to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) listed her running in the 15th. It was amended shortly thereafter.

So who vetted Ocasio-Cortez?

After serving as a volunteer field organizer for Bernie Sanders 2016 Campaign, Ocasio-Cortez was recruited by Justice Democrats — a hostile and shady PAC launched in January 2017 by The Young Turks’ scandal-plagued creator Cenk Uygur and Saikat Chakrabarti, the former Director of Organizing Technology for Sanders’ campaign. Justice Democrats are closely affiliated with Brand New Congress, another PAC launched by Chakrabarti in April 2016 alongside former senior Sanders adviser Zack Exley and former Sanders campaign coordinator Corbin Trent.

Both Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress were founded with the goal of harnessing the momentum and fundraising muscle of the Sanders campaign. A review of the core staff reveals significant crossover and a musical chairs of board members between the two. Ocasio-Cortez assumed a leadership role with Justice Democrats sometime in 2017 — thereby effectively vetting herself for the role of candidate.

Keeping it in the family — two new piggy bank PACs

Until July, Ocasio-Cortez was listed as one of two board members for Justice Democrats, whose PAC mission at the time of launch stated:

“The solution is not unity with the corporate-backed Democrats…It’s time to rebuild the Democratic Party from scratch.”

Operationally, the PAC sought to recruit, train, and run candidates across the country to primary incumbent Democrats — not because they themselves were Democrats, but because “it is next to impossible for a third-party candidate to win a national election.” Justice Democrats website includes the disclaimer it is “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.” Yet Ocasio-Cortez held legal control over the dubious fundraising entity while simultaneously running as a PAC-endorsed candidate — even filing her Statement(s) of Candidacy from their Knoxville, TN address.

Brand New Congress, the PAC we now see Ocasio-Cortez criss-crossing the country helping to promote, has the perplexing mission of “attempting to recruit Congressional candidates to run as Republicans in red districts.” And while Ocasio-Cortez’ has been criticized for her post-primary national campaigning, that appears baked into the strategy with Brand New Congress. In a 2017 interview, Trent explained:

“our goal is to nationalize those races and to really frame a narrative around these representatives that they aren’t just representing their district, which is a very big part of it, but they’re also representing the rest of America with their votes. So I think that our ability to organize…and distribute in an effective way is going to allow us to nationalize more effectively.”

Where did all the money go?

The national spotlight may be great for fundraising efforts, but may prove unwise for a group of political novices inexperienced in federal finance regulations. An analysis of FEC filings shows that their network of PACs, LLCs, board and staff navigate in the same legal and ethical grey area their entire “anti-dark money” platform is based on combatting.

Beginning with Justice Democrats, the PAC has raised $2,100,399 over the course of the 2017–2018 election season. Yet over that same time period, the PAC has made zero independent expenditures in support of any candidates. In fact, dozens of candidates have instead made payments to Justice Democrats.

A review of disbursements reveals that of the $2,026,298 spent to date, over $600,000 for “strategic consulting” services was directed to Brand New Congress LLC — a business entity controlled by Chakrabarti. Another $1 million in contributions has been directed to ex-Bernie staffers or their firms. This includes $222,000 to Middle Seat Consulting LLC, run by Brand New Congress co-Founder Zack Exley, and about $800,000 in salaries and payroll costs. Because those LLCs have not disclosed financial reports, the public has no way of knowing what that money was used for.

In-kind contributions directed towards PAC-endorsed candidates were found to total less than $29,000 for services like Facebook ads, phone banks, operating costs, and communications software. Yet at the same time, about $35,000 was paid to Justice Democrats by these candidates and registered as either “other receipts: operating costs” or “offsets to operating expenses: reimbursement of operating costs.”

Due to this lack of independent expenditures to candidates, the FEC rejected the PACs filing for Multi-Candidate Status at the end of 2017. In its letter, the FEC alleged Justice Democrats had erroneously claimed contributions to five candidates in Texas.

A review of Brand New Congress PAC filings demonstrate a similar movement of fundraising donations into the pockets of ex-Bernie “consultants”. Of the $477,688 raised, no independent expenditures to candidates were made, yet $261,000 was paid to Brand New Congress LLC and over $100,000 was disbursed as salaries or payroll costs.

Ocasio-Cortez’ campaign committee filings show disbursements to Brand New Congress LLC and Justice Democrats, alongside other serious issues. On July 19th, the FEC sent a letter to Ocasio-Cortez’ campaign committee treasurer outlining multiple accounting inaccuracies and requesting “information essential to full public disclosure of your federal election campaign finances.” The FEC has requested response by August 23rd and is considering “audit or enforcement action.”