“The commission is … satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Vote Leave exceeded the spending limit” and committed an offense under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, the report said.
The group was fined a total of £61,000 ($81,000). Darren Grimes, the founder of BeLeave, the group Vote Leave coordinated with in overspending on campaigning, was also fined £20,000 ($26,000).
Both Grimes and Vote Leave official David Halsall have been referred to the police.
“Campaign groups can work together to achieve a particular outcome, but their spending — when combined — must not exceed their individual spending limit,” it added. “Where a lead campaigner is working together with other campaign groups, all the spending will count towards the lead campaigner’s total and needs to fall within the £7 million limit.”
Grimes and BeLeave made payments of around £675,000 ($894,000) to a Canadian data analytics firm Aggregate IQ, which “should have been treated as incurred by Vote Leave,” the commission said.
Source : Nbcnewyork
