169.244 Prohibited contributions or expenditures; delivery or return of contribution; joint fund-raiser; violation as misdemeanor; penalty.

Sec. 44.

    (1) A person shall not make a contribution to another person with the agreement or arrangement that the person receiving the contribution will then transfer that contribution to a particular candidate committee.

    (2) Except as otherwise provided in this section and sections 21a, 44a, 45, and 71, a candidate committee shall not make an expenditure or other disbursement except to further the nomination or election of the candidate for which it is formed. A candidate committee shall not make a contribution to or an independent expenditure on behalf of another candidate committee. This subsection does not prohibit the purchase of tickets to another candidate committee's fund-raising event that does not exceed $100.00 per candidate committee in any calendar year.

    (3) An individual, other than a committee treasurer or the individual designated as responsible for the record keeping, report preparation, or report filing for a committee, who obtains possession of a committee's contribution for the purpose of delivering the contribution to another committee shall deliver the contribution to that committee, that committee's treasurer, or that committee's agent, or return the contribution to the payor, not later than 10 business days after obtaining possession of the contribution.

    (4) Two or more persons, other than individuals, may hold a joint fund-raiser if the receipts and expenses of the fund-raiser are shared proportionately.

    (5) A person who knowingly violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 90 days or a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or both.