A nonprofit bankrolled by Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss recently funneled over $60 million to left-wing groups and causes, tax forms show.
The Berger Action Fund, a Wyss-funded group that has steered vast amounts of money to progressive initiatives, continued propping up liberal organizations ranging from a massive nonprofit within America’s most prominent dark money network to groups overseeing extensive climate endeavors.
“Berger Action Fund supports organizations that work to preserve biodiversity, advance clean energy solutions, and promote economic opportunity,” a spokesperson for the group told Fox News Digital.
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The Berger Action Fund’s tax forms, which Politico obtained, show that the Wyss-backed outfit disbursed $63 million to 13 left-leaning groups between April 2022 and April 2023.
Its most significant donation – $35 million – went to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a dark money nonprofit managed by the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Arabella Advisors.
While the Sixteen Thirty Fund does not identify its donors, a contribution of a similar amount – $34.7 million – was the largest the nonprofit reported receiving on its own tax forms in 2022. The remaining $300,000 from the Berger Action Fund was likely wired sometime between January and April 2023 unless the group rounded up the amount it donated. The Sixteen Thirty Fund’s next largest contribution was $19 million.
During this time, the Sixteen Thirty Fund hauled in around $190 million and passed nearly $150 million in grants to Democrat-aligned groups and endeavors, including large sums to organizations that work on voter engagement and environmental initiatives. It also pushed cash into groups located in pivotal swing states.
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The Berger Action Fund’s tax records also show it donated $19.75 million to Fund For A Better Future and $5 million to the League of Conservation Voters. For some time, Fund for a Better Future housed Climate Power, which teamed up with the League of Conservation Voters in 2022 to undertake a “sophisticated targeting project unlike anything they’d ever undertaken” to propel Democrats.
Climate Power and the League of Conservation Voters are two prominent far-left environmental groups that push aggressive green transition policies. While Fund for a Better Future previously oversaw Climate Power, the group broke into its own nonprofit in the summer of 2023, a spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital.
Additionally, the Berger Action Fund provided $1.5 million to WorkMoney Inc. and hundreds of thousands more to other groups like Indivisible Project, Western Conservation Action, Citizen Action of New York, Americans for Financial Reform, and Common Cause.
For over two decades, Wyss has been financially involved in various left-wing causes. Wyss started the Wyss Foundation in the late 1990s and the Berger Action Fund in 2007.
His citizenship, meanwhile, has come under a microscope as his political giving has garnered increased attention.
Watchdog group Americans for Public Trust (APT) discovered several documents that called his citizenship into question, including a 2021 Securities and Exchange Commission filing in which he says he is a “citizen of Switzerland.”
“Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss has been meddling in our political landscape for years by funneling hundreds of millions of dollars through the Arabella Advisors network to benefit liberal and left-wing causes,” Caitlin Sutherland, APT’s executive director, previously told Fox News Digital.
“While openly bragging to international press about his extensive influence in our country, Wyss’ U.S.-based nonprofits have refused to admit what has now been confirmed: Wyss has never been and is still not a U.S. citizen,” Sutherland said.
Wyss’ activity has also caught the attention of Republican lawmakers, who have eyed legislation to prevent foreign nationals from “influencing the American political system,” Axios reported last year.
“Berger complies with laws and rules governing its activities and prohibits its grants from being used to support or oppose political candidates or parties, or otherwise engage in electoral activities,” the group’s spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Berger has also supported efforts to bring increased transparency to our campaign finance system through the DISCLOSE Act.”
