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The State Board of Elections in recent months has rejected a complaint filed by a veteran campaign finance watchdog regarding a fundraiser the N.C. Association of Indian Americans held for Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall in 2025.
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In February, the board told Bob Hall, the retired executive director of Democracy North Carolina, that it lacked the evidence to challenge the legality of the fundraiser, which Hall found had brought in more than $338,000 in contributions. Speaker Hall collected more than $173,000 and Berger more than $165,000.
“The investigation revealed insufficient evidence of a violation,” said Lindsey Wakely, the board’s campaign finance director and counsel. Wakely has since left the board for a position with the State Ethics Commission.
Hall also challenged some of the contributions, finding people who said they did not make the donations listed in campaign reports. After repeated queries to the board, it notified him last month that it had sent Berger’s campaign a letter in February about two donations that were listed under the wrong donors. The board told Berger’s campaign it needed to correct its reports to reflect the actual donors, which it did in July.
But the source or sources behind two other donations in the names of people who told Hall they did not make them went unmentioned in the board’s findings.
Board spokesman Jason Tyson said state law prevented the board from releasing the findings or commenting on them. The News & Observer learned of them through Bob Hall.
The Republican-controlled legislature passed that law in a post-election session in 2018, ultimately overriding a veto from then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. Tyson’s explanation runs counter to what Senate leader Berger said about the 2018 law at the time of its passage and in an N&O report in late 2024. The law allows for full disclosure once an investigation is completed, he said.
But he and other lawmakers have taken no action to correct the board on its interpretation of the law.
The N&O in September reported on the Indian American association fundraiser, held at the Lime & Lemon Indian Grill & Bar in Chapel Hill on May 31, 2025. Berger and Speaker Hall attended along with N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey and N.C. Labor Commissioner Luke Farley. All are Republicans.
The association’s Facebook page had a flier inviting people to the event, and giving an association email address for RSVPs.
The association has yet to produce tax records showing what kind of nonprofit it is, which could have impacted its ability to hold such an event.
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When it filed incorporation papers with the state, the association identified itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which is prohibited by federal law from raising money for political candidates. On its website, however, it had called itself a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which can engage in some political activity under federal law, so long as it doesn’t represent the majority of its activities.
The N&O sought to obtain the nonprofit’s tax returns from association president Saikiran Kolavennu but received no response. Federal law requires nonprofits to produce the most recent three years’ tax returns upon request. Kolavennu has not responded to a phone call and text message for comment this week.
Tyson said the board does not handle questions of nonprofit status.
Videos of the fundraiser showed a banner with 22 companies listed. A representative of one of those companies told The N&O it had made a contribution.
Spokesmen for Berger and Speaker Hall’s campaigns said they picked up all the expenses. Their campaign reports for the second half of 2025, which were filed in early 2026, reflect that their campaigns each paid the restaurant $11,900.
But those reports show no reimbursements to the Indian American association. Bob Hall said it’s hard for him to believe the group didn’t incur expenses that should have been reflected in Speaker Hall and Berger’s campaign reports as contributions or reimbursements.
The board also has not accounted for contributions in the names of two people who said they did not make them. Bob Hall said each was shown in campaign reports as giving $13,300 to Berger and Speaker Hall.
That issue also surfaced in another elections board investigation into contributions connected to Mako Medical Laboratories CEO Chad Price. Two donations were listed in the names of two people. One was a woman who denied making it; the other from a man who did not exist. The board’s investigation never reported who actually made the donations.
The lack of board accountability resulting from the 2018 law sends a message to donors and candidates, Bob Hall said.
“They can make up a name and get away with it,” Hall said.
The board is currently seeking public comment on proposed rule changes, and Hall has urged them to be more forthcoming when they have closed their investigations.
“I urge the Board to make public, to the fullest extent possible, the findings, referrals, recommendations, communications with affected parties, and conclusions of law, along with their supporting documents, after the investigation is completed,” Hall said in a letter to the board this week.
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