Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Add another problem to Kanye West's litany of troubles: thieves keep stealing money from his old 2020 presidential campaign committee.
An Insider review of federal campaign finance records indicates that "unknown" persons took several thousand dollars from his still-active Kanye 2020 account: $1,474 on December 9, 2021; $1,280 on February 8, and $1,245 on February 22.
In an unsigned letter to the Federal Election Commission, West's campaign acknowledged that it experienced an "external fraud situation."
"After investigating, it was determined that an individual not connected with the campaign accessed a campaign account to pay his own credit card," West's campaign wrote on May 23, noting that it reported the charges to its bank, the First Bank of Wyoming.
"A stop-pay was put in place to protect against future unauthorized charges," West's campaign continued. "The bank was unable to reverse the transactions at issue due to the way they were presented for payment" via the Automated Clearing House network, an electronic fund transfer system.
Federal Election Commission
Separately, West's campaign reported a "fraudulent charge" of $233.98 on July 17 related to a campaign committee payment to Verizon.
A representative for West's campaign committee could not immediately be reached for comment.
Federal Election Commission
West's 2020 presidential campaign committee technically remains open and active because it has yet to spend down its remaining cash surplus — $371,150 as of September 30, according to federal records.
Legally, the Kanye 2020 committee could transfer the leftover money to other political committees, donate it to charity, disgorge it to the US Treasury, or, as it has so far, just sit on it for future considerations, such as another run for public office.
West is hardly alone in experiencing theft from his presidential campaign account: Dozens of other federal political committees — including President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee — have lost money at the hands of thieves and embezzlers, an Insider investigation last year revealed.
Poor financial controls and lax security measures often contributed to political committees losing money.
Now known as Ye, West's 2020 presidential campaign was a decidedly quixotic effort that gained far more attention than it ever did votes.
In the end, West only appeared on the ballot in a handful of states and won about 60,000 votes nationwide — a tiny fraction of the more than 81.2 million Joe Biden earned to win the presidency.
But as part of his campaign, West revealed never-before-published details about his personal finances and private life, including information suggesting trouble in his then-marriage to Kim Kardashian West. (Months later, Kardashian West would file for divorce.)
Since then, West — whose legal name is now Ye — has been embroiled in scandal as he openly flirts with a 2024 presidential run.
In recent weeks, he's threatened to go "death con 3 on Jewish people" and wore a "White Lives Matter" shirt at a Paris fashion show. NBC reported that West paid a settlement to a former employee who accused West of using anti-Semitic language and lauding Adolph Hitler.
Companies that previously associated with the rapper and entrepreneur have abandoned him. Most notable: Adidas, the German sportswear giant, which dropped West's Yeezy line of footwear and other products.
The situation has cost West gobs of money. Forbes last week dropped West from its list of billionaires, writing that "caps a stunning, self-induced downfall for one of the brashest and most volatile personalities to have graced Forbes' pages."
While saying that West's comments about Jews were "rough," former President Donald Trump has stood by Ye and praised him for saying "all those great things about me".
