MAGA candidate busted running 'third-party' campaign merch store through shell company

Colorado GOP gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx's scheme to dodge campaign finance limits just got a lot murkier.

Marx, a controversial figure who claims he was forced to kill a man when he was a child, has been boasting he got around campaign finance limits by soliciting donations through a supposedly third-party campaign merchandise store, which among much else sells packages up to $1,299 including a personal meeting with the candidate.

But a 9News investigation tracked the donations through his store straight back to an anonymous company Marx himself owns.

Emails from Marx's campaign merchandise site now carry a disclaimer saying they're paid for by "Not Shook, LLC." That company isn't registered in Colorado, but 9News found it registered in Wyoming, a state that lets LLC owners stay anonymous. The trail would have ended there, except an obscure Colorado campaign finance filing showed Not Shook, LLC paid Marx's campaign $5,000 for a "Logo Licensing Fee" — and state law requires LLCs making contributions to name their owner. That filing identifies the member of Not Shook, LLC as Victor Marx himself.

Marx pitched the unlimited merchandise purchases directly to supporters during a July 30 livestream, right after his campaign was already found to have violated the state's $1,450 individual contribution limit.

"If they order merchandise, there's no limit on that. They can order as much as they want. That will really help us," Marx said.

Campaign finance attorney Mario Nicolais didn't mince words about the legality of the arrangement.

"This is just patently illegal," Nicolais said.

When 9News pressed further, Marx's campaign attorney Christopher Murray told a conservative radio show the money wasn't actually going to the campaign at all, though he wouldn't say where it was going, only that a third party had been "authorized" to sell the merchandise. Marx's campaign previously boasted the merch operation had already pulled in nearly $200,000.

The campaign has not responded to 9News' questions about the anonymous, out-of-state company now traced directly back to Marx, or whether he's personally profiting off his supporters' donations.