Over all, however, state-level donations appeared roughly evenly split between the parties, said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity.
The tribes' big campaign donations appear to have hurt their preferred candidates and turned public sentiment against them and their gambling enterprises, the political analysts said.
Ms. Canary said the Puigs' donations appeared to be legal because the authors of the new law had not drafted language that clearly addressed situations in which closely related companies make multiple donations to the same candidate.
In the case of Kang Kang, a construction company purportedly based in Flushing, all the donations appeared to have been written by the same person, and at least four of the signatures were strikingly similar, as well.
Whatever the issues of tax-exempt status among the various charities, federal regulators say the groups could find themselves in trouble in another way — in violation of federal anti-kickback laws — if donations appear to be little more than a way for companies to funnel money to doctors.
In addition, the donations appeared to be much larger than would be expected given the Paw's modest income.
The New York Times called "Human Capital" a "dishonest attempt to make legal, voluntary and potentially lifesaving tissue donations appear nefarious and illegal".
He explained that he'd been troubled by pessimism he'd seen online, with participants in online communities complaining that all the publicity and donations appeared to have no help.
However in general, directed donations appear to be compatible with existing bioethical principles of nonmaleficence, beneficence, utility, autonomy, and distributing benefits and burdens equitably [ 44].
