The Federal Election Commission slapped a $28,000 fine on the hotel company belonging to Trump’s former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, for illegal corporate reimbursements totaling more than $100,000, according to documents released Friday. In sworn testimony, the president of Provenance Hotels said he was “acting under the directions” of Sondland personally, according to the FEC general counsel’s report, a claim the former ambassador disputed in his own affidavit. The scheme, which was brought to the FEC’s attention by the company itself, took place from 2018-2019. One employee reimbursement check came in October 2019, according to the FEC, in the thick of the Ukraine impeachment scandal heavily featuring Sondland, who testified before Congress. About $21,000 of the illicit donations went to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who downplayed the scandal and later asked President Donald Trump not to remove Sondland from his post, The New York Times previously reported; Trump fired him anyway. A spokesperson for Provenance Hotels provided a statement to The Daily Beast saying that Sondland “cooperated fully with the investigation” and was not personally found to have committed wrongdoing, and that the company has since adopted “enhanced internal controls” to prevent a future recurrence.
