Kanye West’s 2020 presidential campaign didn’t result in the win that he had hoped for. The rapper only tallied a few hundred votes from a handful of states around the country, and while the election is a thing of the past now, it looks like he’s in a bit of trouble as a result of it.
According to The Daily Beast the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has named several violations from the rapper’s campaign, all of which could lead to legal action pending an investigation. The report states that Kanye accepted multiple donations from minors as well as some from possible foreign officials. Contributions were also listed under fake names and addresses that traced back to drop-shipping facilities on the east and west coasts.
These unlawful fundraising practices accumulated nearly $100,000 in small donations this year. In an interview with the publication, 16-year-old West donor Ian Bloom revealed that he’s yet to receive $3,280 worth of Kanye 2020 gear that he ordered from the rapper’s campaign store in late January.
“I don’t know what’s happening there,” he said. “I ordered like 20 hoodies off his campaign website, along with a lot of other people that I know. They said it would be three weeks, and after that I emailed the support team, and the email just wasn’t a thing.” He shared a screenshot of the automated email response that revealed his address had been blocked. The Daily Beast adds that people under the age of 18 accounted for more than 1,200 of the reported 3,161 donations to Kanye’s campaign, making for a total of $349,160 with $26,540 of that arriving in 2021. It should be noted that it is illegal to seek and accept donations from anyone younger than 18 years old.
Bloom added that he’s in a Discord chat with other hopeful resellers of Kanye’s 2020 gear, many of whom are underage. “I can say with confidence that at least half of us in the group have to be still in high school,” he said.