Neither Jenkins nor the Indie Party would identify the three other investors who contributed. Calls and emails left with the Global Trust Group were not returned. Attinger is managing director of venture management for Global Trust Group and is on the board of Raise The Money Inc., an online platform for political fundraising, according to his online bio. Indie Party spokesman Mitch Allen identified one of the investors as Las Vegas-based Global Trust Group, and said William Attinger, a former Morgan Stanley derivatives specialist, “led the initial investment” on behalf of the group. And it’s owned not by the voters but by private equity investors who provided the start-up funds. It’s a private, for-profit corporation whose finances are - despite the gauzy advertising - not entirely transparent. “This is real transparency, instead of behind closed doors and in the shadows.”īut the Indie Party is not a political party at all. It’s “a party that is owned by you, the people, not by the politicians,” declares one of several videos on the Indie Party website. Slick videos on the Indie Party website promote independent candidates as the solution to politics as usual, and the party offers a high-tech innovation: a crypto-currency called Indie Tokens that volunteers can earn and sell to donors and that can be used to buy campaign merchandise or political services from vendors, lawyers and pollsters. A graduate of Euless-Trinity High School and Abilene Christian University, Jenkins announced the launch of the Indie Party in March and said it had raised some $6.5 million in start-up capital within 72 hours. Jenkins is the co-founder of company known as Order With Me (or just WithMe), which helps companies develop pop-up retail outlets. “In Texas there's a really interesting race and I think both of the candidates are soft on their support and there's a real opportunity for us." “I think there is a demand for a party, of something else, for another choice,” Jenkins said. He said he’s “100 percent confident” he will turn in enough voters’ signatures by the June 21 deadline set by the state - and plans to spend some of his own money to pay for the effort. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Jenkins, 35, says he got into the race because people are hungry for an alternative to the stale talking points and gridlock of the mainstream party candidates. Marcus Reese, a spokesman for Jenkins said the campaign was not aware of the FEC complaint but said both Democrats and Republicans apparently "agree with our assessment that Jonathan Jenkins is a candidate who threatens to break their rigged stranglehold on democracy." Reese also noted the FEC found in 2017 that the Republicans' own candidate, Cruz, had not properly disclosed loans from Goldman Sachs in 2012. In an email sent out early Monday morning, the Harris County Republican Party announced that Chair Paul Simpson is filing a Federal Elections Commission complaint alleging that both Jenkins and the Party have run afoul of election laws with "financial shenanigans." The effort has already drawn opposition from Texas Republicans. The Euless native has been busily gathering the 47,000 or so signatures he needs to qualify for a spot as an independent on the November ballot alongside Cruz and O’Rourke. Its candidate and founder is a self-described “successful tech entrepreneur” and fluent Mandarin speaker named Jonathan Jenkins.
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