TONY WIED - you have a Smurf.

Smurfs aren’t just the cute little blue characters we remember from the 80’s and 90’s, there is a much more nefarious meaning behind “smurf” or “smurfing”.

So, what is this nefarious smurf? Or smurfing? “A smurf is someone who makes small transactions to help launder large sums of money. Smurfs can act knowingly or be used unwittingly in these schemes, making multiple deposits, withdrawals, transfers that seem innocent individually but are part of a larger fraud.”

I am no expert on smurfing which is why I really appreciate all the time and research put into this topic by Peter Bernegger, Julie Seegers and others. In my political sleuthing, as I like to think of it, I happened to come across a glaring example of a smurf and it just so happens I came across this while digging through “Tony Wied for Congress” finance report.

It is likely that the 71-year-old woman from Wichita, KS, who is being smurfed is entirely unaware that her name, address and personal information is being used to launder money into campaigns. Since March 7th, 2023, this Alicia Kandt has “donated” (in quotations because she is likely unaware of these donations and most likely did not come from any bank account of hers) 8,833 times to a variety of political campaigns in small amounts, totaling $82,859.32. She has “donated” 57 times to Tony Wied since 6/11/2024 and all of those donations happened on just two dates. June 11th, 2024, and June 16th, 2024, totaling $472.53.

Both Democrat and Republican campaigns are susceptible to smurfing. The only way I can see to put a stop to smurfing is for individuals and campaigns to watch their campaign finance accounts closely and to make the candidate aware of the issue immediately so they can remedy the situation. If they do not fix it, they should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law right along with whomever is illegally smurfing the money into their account in the first place and it is not the 71-year-old retired woman who lives in a small home in Wichita, KS.

It is possible that Tony Wied has no idea that smurfing is happening in his campaign, so I’d like to give him the chance to remedy this situation as quickly as possible and to let me know when it has been resolved.

Tony Wied for Congress has the opportunity to make this right and begin the ball rolling on restoring integrity and honor to campaign finance, find out where this money really came from and request a full investigation into smurfing in Wisconsin (at the very least). As the “only Trump endorsed” candidate, as Wied like to remind us constantly, in the WI-08 race, I am calling on him to immediately do just that! Stand behind election security, campaign finance security and American security.

You can find this information for yourself here