Leading the Future's super PACs sent about $33 million to two Nevada LLCs with mailbox addresses

The Spanish Springs shopping center in Sparks, Nevada, has a Spirit Halloween and a Vietnamese restaurant among its tenants ^[3]. WIRED reports that Lantern Production Consultants LLC, which Think Big has paid around $20 million since last year, does not seem to exist anywhere beyond a post office box in that complex ^[1][2].

Add the two payments WIRED itemizes and the total is about $33 million: roughly $20 million to Lantern and roughly $13 million to Summit Ridge Media Group ^[11]. WIRED did not report amounts for the other two LLCs, so $33 million is a floor. Against the more than $140 million the network has raised, the two payments come to no more than about 24 percent ^[12].

The other addresses are plain retail. Blue Horizon Compliance Consultants lists a Staples in Reno, and Prusik Partners LLC lists a strip mall in Henderson where it shares a building with a chiropractor and a beauty salon ^[6].

On the funding side, WIRED names Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and OpenAI president Greg Brockman among the Silicon Valley backers who give Leading the Future more cash than any other pro-AI group ^[9]. The dispute is over the payees. Shanna Ports, senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, said, "This is about hiding where the money is going." ^[13]

Leading the Future's reply is a legal one. Spokesperson Jesse Hunt wrote to WIRED, "We comply with all applicable laws and this is merely a desperate ploy for attention from Public First, Anthropic, and the groups aligned with their outside organizations who see our message resonating with the public and policymakers." ^[15] Public First spokesperson Anthony Rivera-Rodriguez said, "I have no idea what they're talking about," and added, "We unequivocally had nothing to do with this complaint." ^[16] Anthropic did not respond to WIRED's request for comment ^[17]. Hunt's statement, as WIRED quotes it, addresses the complainant's motives and the group's legal position. It does not say who works inside the LLCs.

The FEC has six commissioner seats, and a decision on a complaint needs a quorum of four ^[7]. The Campaign Legal Center does not expect its case to be heard soon, and Think Big and American Mission have kept sending money to the LLCs in the meantime ^[8].

This part is for whoever has to explain a payee list to a boss or a board. We'd sort every payee on two things: how large the payment is, and whether a named person and a working address can be found for the payee. Three of the four cells need nothing or a note. The fourth, a large payment to a payee with no findable person or place, is where the payer should be asked for names before anyone draws a conclusion. An address alone does not establish wrongdoing, and Leading the Future says it complies with all applicable laws ^[15]. On WIRED's reporting, Lantern, at roughly $20 million and a post office box, sits in that last cell ^[1][2].