Idaho CEO, big GOP donor subject of IRS, Labor audits
BOISE – Idaho multimillionaire and big-money Republican donor Frank Vandersloot has found himself the subject of two new federal audits, one by the Internal Revenue Service and the other by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Vandersloot, the founder and CEO of Idaho Falls-based health care products company Melaleuca Inc., said he learned of the two federal inquires within the last month and intends to cooperate.
What he doesn’t understand is the timing.
Vandersloot is no stranger to bare-knuckle politics and using his wealth to influence state and national elections. He is among the wealthy donors who have given at least $1 million to a political action committee supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The 63-year-old Mormon entrepreneur is also a national campaign finance co-chair for Romney and one of eight Romney donors singled out in April by President Barack Obama’s campaign for having questionable and troubling records on various issues.
Sixty-one days after the Obama campaign posted the list of Romney donors, Vandersloot said he received a letter from the IRS, his first-ever audit from the agency.
“It’s all fine and well,” Vandersloot said Wednesday. “I am not claiming there is a connection, and don’t know if there is one.
“But the fact that it comes right on the heels of being named on the president’s enemies list is curious to say the least,” he said.
A spokesman from the Obama administration declined comment Wednesday, deferring instead to responses from the federal agencies. Officials from the president’s campaign did not immediately respond to messages left by the AP.
IRS spokeswoman Julianne Breitbeil Fisher says federal laws prohibit the agency from discussing taxpayer information with anyone. In general, she said, the IRS stresses that enforcement decisions are made by career civil servants and are based solely on the tax law and nothing else.
Spokesman Joshua Lamont says there is no immediate information available on what triggered the audit and says typically audits for this program are selected at random.