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The FBI has opened an investigation into the activities of a pro-Trump group that appears to have engaged in an off-the-books foreign influence campaign and violated IRS rules regulating the political activity of nonprofit organizations, Salon has learned.
The probe s scope includes two officials affiliated with the Urban Revitalization Coalition, a now-defunct organization which made headlines last year with suspicious cash giveaways to Black voters and subsequently lost its tax-exempt charity status, a person familiar with the investigation told Salon. The two men Kareem Lanier and Darrell Scott, a Cleveland-area pastor and former Trump campaign official also used the URC as a vehicle to solicit donations from foreign nationals, including influential Turkish businessmen, while they worked with Trump administration officials to attract new investment in Opportunity Zones, economically disadvantaged areas targeted for new incentives under the former