WASHINGTON, D.C. – Soon after his departure as chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Kevin DeWine started a new political group and began collecting donations. The group's name, the Advancing Freedom Action Network, portended grand ideals, fitting for a man who had led the GOP in one of the nation's most important states politically.

Yet so far, DeWine's group, a form of a super PAC, has not spent any money on political races or advocacy, based on public records reviewed by the Northeast Ohio Media Group. DeWine's political group has, however, spent $40,000 that it raised to pay a private company for fundraising – a company also created and run by Kevin DeWine.

DeWine's new political group, in other words, paid DeWine's new private company for fundraising – even though it had raised money from only one donor at that point, according to records.

Politicians who employ their children, spouses or siblings as their fundraisers are often criticized for the appearance of self-dealing or of personally profiting from their political activities. In this case, there appears to have been no sibling, spouse or child involved. DeWine, a former Dayton-area Ohio House of Representatives member who now works behind the scenes as a consultant, set up both entities and then had one pay the other.

DeWine, in an email and a telephone conversation, would not discuss these activities with the Northeast Ohio Media Group.

Before paying his own company $40,000 for its fundraising work, his political group had received only one donation -- a check for $250,000 from a mysterious company calling itself the American Dream Fund LLC.

American Dream Fund LLC had only recently incorporated. It used a Cleveland branch office of a professional services firm, C.T. Systems, and did not disclose its officers or directors, or even an address. Its check was earmarked to provide operating funds for DeWine's new political group, as opposed to going for any future contributions that DeWine's group might make. But whoever is behind the money, his or her motives are not known.

After paying DeWine's private company, DeWine's political group subsequently got money from three more donors: a political arm of Ohio's nursing home industry; a company that provides money for payday loans, pawnshops and title-lending companies, and a construction company whose president donates regularly to other Ohio politicians including allies of DeWine.

DeWine, a second cousin to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, was Ohio Republican Party chairman from January 2009 to April 2012. He resigned after loyalists to Gov. John Kasich wrested party control.

DeWine's post-chairman roles appear to have been little known until now. Current Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges, asked about DeWine's activities, said, "I have absolutely no idea what any of that is."

The Northeast Ohio Media Group learned of DeWine's activities by reviewing records and data aggregated by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit that tracks money in politics. The Northeast Ohio Media Group also reviewed records filed with the FEC, and corporate and political fundraising records filed with the Ohio Secretary of State's office. And it reviewed annual returns filed with the IRS for related nonprofit political groups.

Groups and companies like DeWine's operate in a sphere that is legal, allowed by federal and state regulators who say that unless Congress acts, they are powerless to restrict unlimited donations to groups not directly tied to a single candidate, donations from undisclosed donors and transfers from one group to another. While Democrats in Congress have tried unsuccessfully to pass laws that would prohibit some of these practices, their party also has benefitted from the flow of large checks. Supporters of the system say that donors, including corporations, are using their checkbooks to express their First Amendment right to political speech.

Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said he is reluctant to criticize DeWine because, he said, Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court and state legislatures are the ones ultimately responsible for what he and others see as a problem. "It is one of the reasons why our business, the business of politics, has become so muddled," Redfern said.

Told of the DeWine political group's transactions and timing by the Northeast Ohio Media Group, Redfern said, "Kevin is a smart guy, and he is taking advantage of the loopholes."

Here is how and when DeWine created the groups, got donations and made payments after his April 13, 2012, resignation as party chairman.

June 29, 2012: DeWine, using his home address in Fairborn, a Dayton suburb, incorporated the Advancing Freedom Action Network. Incorporation papers said that no earnings or assets would benefit members, directors or officers, but made an exception for "reasonable compensation for services rendered."

Nov. 26, 2012: DeWine formed and incorporated his private company, Main Street Solutions, LLC.

Dec. 27, 2012: American Dream Fund LLC, a mysterious company that had just been formed that June, donated $250,000 to the Advancing Freedom Action Network, the DeWine political group. This new Ohio-based company has no relationship to the Los Angeles-based American Dream Fund, according to the latter group, which works on immigration and visa issues for foreign investors.

Jan. 18, 2013: The Advancing Freedom Action Network, using DeWine's home address, paid Main Street Solutions – also using DeWine's home address -- $16,000 for fundraising expenses. It not known whether the check was mailed, handed to another person in DeWine's house or taken from one room of the home to another.

March 11, 2013: DeWine's political group paid $8,000 more to DeWine's private company for fundraising services. Another $16,000 flowed from the political group to the company on May 6, 2013.

Besides these disbursements to DeWine's company, the former chairman's political group wrote additional checks totaling $25,054, but all were for legal services paid to the Cincinnati office of Dinsmore & Shohl, a law firm.

DeWine's group got additional donations later, but only from three entities.

A political group that calls itself 55 Green Meadows and represents Ohio's nursing home owners wrote checks totaling $55,000 between July 2013 and Sept. 9, 2014. Peter Van Runkle is executive director of 55 Green Meadows and also executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association – based at 55 Green Meadows, in Lewis Center, a Columbus suburb. The Ohio Health Care Association is the trade group for the nursing home industry.

In a telephone interview, Van Runkle said he had not known about the payment from DeWine's political group, Advancing Freedom Action Network, to DeWine's company. But he said it did not strike him as odd.

"No, although maybe we'll talk with Kevin to see what's going on," Van Runkle said.

Asked why the nursing home lobby donated to the Advancing Freedom Action Network, Van Runkle said, "Well, we like to advance freedom."

Asked where 55 Green Meadows gets its money, Van Runkle said, "We don't have to disclose that."

DeWine's Advancing Freedom Action Network also got $15,000 this May from NCP Finance Ohio, a company that provides funding for loans to people who cannot get regular bank loans, often in exchange for high interest rates. An NCP Finance representative did not return a reporter's call to discuss the donation.

There was one more donor, also in May this year: $10,000 from Kelchner, Inc., a Springboro, Ohio construction company. The company's president, Todd Kelchner, gives regularly to Ohio Republican candidates close to DeWine. Kelchner did not return a call from the Northeast Ohio Media Group.

It is unclear what role DeWine's political group might or might not play in Ohio politics in the future. DeWine in 2013 created yet another nonprofit political group, called Advancing Freedom's Values, to advocate for "thoughtful public policies that will lead to a better quality of life for Ohio citizens," according to its Ohio corporate certification. Yet that group has shown no public signs of activity.

Nor, for that matter, has DeWine's Advancing Freedom Action Network. Despite its 2013 payments to DeWine's company for fundraising, it has not spent any money on political issues or candidates. This being a big election year in Ohio, that might suggest the group has become dormant.

Yet the Advancing Freedom Action Network had $264,930 in cash in its account at the end of last month. And at the start of last month, it was still taking in money – from 55 Green Meadows, the nursing home political group. At $30,000, this was the fourth contribution from 55 Green Meadows to the DeWine group, bringing the nursing home lobby's total to $55,000. Nursing home owners get involved in politics because politicians and regulators pass laws that affect their revenue from Medicaid, and rules that affect their operations.

Asked if he knew what DeWine group's was doing or its political plans, Van Runkle said, "I'm sure that Kevin can enlighten you" on it.

DeWine, however, would not comment.