Phantom Company Donates $1 Million to Romney Group

A company that donated $1 million to Restore Our Future, a Mitt Romney Super PAC, is suspected of having been formed for the sole purpose of funneling money to the Romney cause.

NBC News has uncovered campaign and corporate records showing that W Spann LLC made a million-dollar contribution to Restore Our Future six weeks after it was formed by a Boston lawyer in March 2011.

The lawyer, Cameron Casey of the Boston firm Ropes & Gray, dissolved W Spann LLC on July 12 -- two weeks before Restore Our Future made its first campaign filing.

"The corporate records provide no information about the owner of the firm, its address or its type of business," NBC reports.

W Spann LLC shows a Manhattan address in donation records to Restore Our Future, but the Midtown office building has no record of the company ever being a tenant.

An executive of Minskoff Equities, the firm that manages the building, told NBC that he had "never heard of" W Spann.

W Spann LLC was one of four entities that donated $1 million to Restore Our Future, which was formed by former Romney political aides. Among the other three, one was tied to hedge fund manager John Paulson and two to Mormon businessman Steven J. Lund, New York magazine reports.

A Romney campaign official told NBC the campaign could not comment on the activities of Restore Our Future, which he described as an "independent entity."

Lawrence Noble, the former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, told NBC that the establishment of a company for the sole purpose of donating to a Super PAC could pose a "serious" legal issue.

"There is a real issue of it just being a subterfuge" if that ends up being the case, Noble said.

But even it does not turn out that W Spann LLC was created for the purpose of by-proxy Romney fundraising, "What you have here is a roadmap for how people can hide their identities" when donating funds, Noble added.

What is a Super PAC?

A Super PAC is a political action committee that operates independently of a candidate (officially) but supports the campaigns of a particular candidate, and allows unlimited donations from corporations and wealthy patrons.

There is a $2,500 cap for contributions given directly to a Presidential primary or general election campaign.

Some believe the very existence of Super PACs undermines campaign finance regulations.

"The super PACs are for the wealthy, by the wealthy and of the wealthy," Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center told USA Today. "You're setting up a dynamic where the candidates could become bit players in their own campaigns."

The Center for Public Integrity reported that Romney spoke at a dinner party for current and potential donors to Restore Our Future in July.

Casey, the lawyer who formed W Spann LLC, did not respond to a request for comment by the International Business Times, and a spokesperson for Ropes & Gray told NBC the law firm "won't be making any comment on this matter at this time."