51ºÚÁÏ

The penalty was levied against the Missouri Association of Career Fire Protection District’s political action committee earlier this month after the Missouri Ethics Commission audited the account amid news reports about potential money laundering.

“Based on the audit report, the commission determined that there were reasonable grounds to believe that violations of law had occurred,� the decision said.

The fund, which has since been shut down, was used by Stenger as a place to park large corporate donations from donors seeking to bypass a state ban on making such donations directly to candidates.

Stenger, a Democrat, was sentenced in August 2019 to nearly four years in federal prison for charges related to pay-to-play corruption.

He pleaded guilty in May 2019 to federal corruption charges following a federal investigation into favors traded for campaign contributions.

According to the ethics commission, the MACFPD committee reported a $250,000 contribution from its parent group in November 2018. Over a year later, the committee amended its report to say the contribution was actually from Great 51ºÚÁÏ Inc.

Great 51ºÚÁÏ was a nonprofit run by Travis Brown, a former top lieutenant of Rex Sinquefield, a wealthy 51ºÚÁÏ retired financier who has funneled millions of dollars into Missouri politics.

Before his split with Sinquefield, Brown, for example, headed the Sinquefield-backed political action committee behind the scuttled effort to privatize 51ºÚÁÏ Lambert International Airport.

For Stenger, the money from the fire protection group was among a number of major contributions that came in during his 2018 Democratic primary race, as well as the push to merge 51ºÚÁÏ County and the city.

The committee also was fined by the MEC for failing to accurately report other money in its account on 12 different reports in 2018.

The committee also failed to properly report a $180,000 expense in the run-up to the August 2018 primary. The money went to an Ohio-based advertising company, but its address listed it as a Missouri company, further obscuring what the money was used for.

Stenger, meanwhile, was released from a federal lock-up in June.