Crypto executive behind mysterious $500,000 payment to PAC backing Mayor Francis Suarez

The mystery person behind a $500,000 donation to a super PAC supporting Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s bid for president was revealed in a Monday FEC filing as Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO and cofounder of MoonPay, a Miami-based technology platform for buying and selling crypto currencies.

The half-million-dollar contribution to SOS America PAC on Oct. 28, 2022, was reported as made by PassionForest, LLC — mirroring the name of an online artificial flower vendor from China.

The scant details regarding the source of such a high-value contribution piqued the interest of the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission last week alleging that the PassionForest donation likely violated federal straw donor bans. Federal laws prohibit routing contributions through third-party entities or other people, thus masking the identity of the actual contributor.

Following the complaint, the PAC added a memo to a routine filing Monday listing Soto-Wright as the CEO of the company behind the contribution.

A spokesperson for Soto-Wright told the Miami Herald that the tech entrepreneur personally donated the $500,000 through PassionForest, LLC, a company solely-owned and controlled by Soto-Wright that has no affiliation with the Chinese vendor of the same name.

Even if the donor company is owned entirely by Soto-Wright, Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center, said the basis of the FEC complaint remains the same: Straw donor bans were likely violated because the money was given by an individual who funneled it through an LLC en route to the PAC.

“Really what our complaint was alleging was an LLC made a contribution with money that was not its own money,” Ghosh said. “The larger issue is this is Ivan Soto-Wright’s money. That’s exactly what straw donor schemes look like.”

Through his representatives, Soto-Wright denied any wrongdoing.

“Ivan Soto-Wright made a personal contribution consistent with federal campaign finance laws,” said Samuel Brown, a partner at Holland & Knight, the law firm used by the tech executive to file his contribution.

The Campaign Legal Center complaint first drew the apparent connection between the PassionForest, LLC that made the political donation and the Chinese Amazon storefront. PassionForest, LLC was incorporated in November 2021 in Delaware, the same week that the online vendor applied for a U.S. trademark. Delaware laws do not require disclosure of the company principals or executives.

The spokesperson for Soto-Wright said the complaint was “typical politics,” likely pushed by an opposing campaign trying to “tie Suarez up in several negative news cycles.”

In its July 31 FEC filing, SOS America noted that Soto-Wright’s name was added to the PassionForest contribution because the original filing was missing a “partnership attribution.” FEC regulations require that contributions from single-member LLCs, like PassionForest, be attributed to the member, not the company.

FEC spokesperson Judith Ingram said the commission does not comment on complaints or potential investigations.

Neither SOS America nor Suarez’s campaign immediately responded to the Herald’s request for comment. A spokesperson for the PAC previously said the complaint was “nothing more than a political attack and it will be seen for what it is.”

A former DJ and investment firm founder, Soto-Wright has been a vocal supporter of Suarez since moving to South Florida just before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, he sat for a short video interview with the mayor — part of a series dubbed “cafecito” talks — in which he espoused the virtues of headquartering a global technology company in Miami.

“It was great meeting with Mayor @FrancisSuarez yesterday,” Soto-Wright tweeted after the interview. “We spoke about how Miami is a great fit for @MoonPayHQ and the future of #crypto and work. Lots to be done here!”

In a comment to Refresh Miami, which covers Miami tech and startup news, Suarez described his first meeting with Soto-Wright saying, “I immediately understood his energy, his vision, and his intellect.”

Soto-Wright and other top company executives sold $150 million of MoonPay shares in late 2021, just months before the bottom of the crypto market fell out, according to a report in Fortune.com. He then bought a waterfront mansion in Miami Beach for nearly $40 million.

The cryptocurrency executive’s donation is the among the largest donations received by SOS America, the PAC responsible for launching an AI version of Suarez and a college tuition raffle soliciting one dollar donations in an effort to reach the 40,000 individual donor threshold needed to participated in the Aug. 23 Republican primary debate.

A July 31 FEC filing shows SOS America raised nearly $1.3 million so far this year — more than $200,000 less than it spent since the beginning of 2023. As of the filing, the PAC holds about $5.6 million in cash on hand.

Suarez launched his presidential campaign in June amid controversies over his outside employment, in particular a $10,000 a month consulting agreement with a developer seeking help with permitting, which is currently under state and federal investigation. He is currently polling at far below 1% in national polls, according to FiveThirtyEight.